Gospel of John, 1:35-51
John 1:35-51 · Mike Doyle · Jan 27, 2008
Gospel of John (2008), No. 04
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926051365244

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Okay, we had moved along to about verse 35, and there's a bit of a change here. The Lord Jesus is now going to come on the scene a little bit, and He's going to start to manifest Himself in His public ministry. And this context will go from Right where we are now, all the way to chapter 12 and verse 50. So over the next weeks and months, primarily what we'll be concerned with is the public ministry of the Lord Jesus. And I know that when you start thinking about chapter 12, verse 50, Well, gee, there's a whole bunch of other chapters after that.

Is this public ministry over? Anybody know why the public ministry ends right there? It was in the outline of the first week. What changes there? I'm reminding you of this. It goes from being a public ministry to the nation of Israel to being a very private ministry now just to His disciples. And there's a lot of chapters 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, that are just ministry to the disciples. And it's important to distinguish that. And I'll remind you, obviously, again, when we get there.

So the first question I gave you last week was John, writing 30 plus years after the other Gospels, again uses, behold the Lamb of God, rather than a formal declaration of doctrine. What does this show us about John? Do you understand the question? The way in which John treats or refers to Christ is different than the other disciples or the other apostles. And what's different about him? How did he describe himself when he referred to himself in the Gospel of John? How did he refer to himself? On number nine.

It's the disciple that Jesus loved. He would never use his name, but notice how he describes his relationship with the Lord Jesus. He describes it as the disciple that Jesus loved. I think that John is focusing in on a really important aspect of what believers today miss, and that is intimacy with Christ. John had a heart affection for Christ that was greater than any formal declaration of doctrine.

See that? That's kind of the way he is. And as we study John's gospel, we're going to see that, and if you read John's epistles, it's the same way. He is all about personal intimacy and affection and relationship more than he is doctrine. But trust me, he doesn't miss the doctrine. John's gospel portrays Jesus as a lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, not necessarily the Jewish Messiah. So it's not so much public testimony here as it is an expression of his heart addressed to one which he had heard." His whole relationship with the Lord Jesus is much more intimate than all of the other disciples, much more so. And so, if that's the case, then he has a ministry, a specific ministry. And what is it? What's his ministry? He's a good writer. He's a herald. What's that? The herald is the herald. He's the herald. And what's the herald do? He prepares the way. What's that? He prepares the way. He prepares the way. But by preparing the way, what is he doing?

If I'm the herald and you're walking behind me, what am I doing? I'm pointing you and everybody within earshot to him. His ministry is to say, there He is. Look at Him. Pay attention to Him. Don't look at me. Look at Him. That's His whole ministry. Behold the Lamb of God. There He is. Behold Him. You will find as we go on today that that's really what He's about. Now, how about your ministry and my ministry? Is it the same thing? Is there any difference between what John is doing and what we do or should do? There's no difference at all.

And one of the ways you can tell a person who claims to be a public minister of the Lord Jesus Christ is, are they saying, behold Him? Or are they saying, come and talk to me and I'll give you all the information? You have to go through me to get to Him.

John's not doing that. He's saying, there He is. focus there, not me, there. So I think it's important to see this in John, that his ministry is all about the Lord Jesus Christ and focusing and pointing people to him. That's what he does. And our ministry is not any different than that. It's exactly the same thing, which presupposes that you have an intimate heart affection with Christ, which is cool. In terms of relationship, what is the highest satisfaction one can have?

I'll read a verse to you and see if you can pick up on this. The two disciples, verse 37, the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. Then Jesus turned, and seeing them following, said to them, What do you seek? And they said to him, Rabbi, which is to say, Teacher, where are you staying? And Jesus said, Come and see. In terms of relationship, what's the highest satisfaction one can have? That's right. Being with the one you love. That's the highest thing there is. So, do you see that happening here? You see it exactly happening here.

But you've got to understand, I think, that if you believe that the way has been prepared then you will approach Him. If you know that the Lord Jesus loves you, then you'll go to Him. If you're not sure, you won't. Understand that? His love is so great that He desires your company. He wants you in intimacy with Him. And He's working in that direction all the time.

Now, it's not an issue of whether you feel that you're okay in that place or not, you'll be there really in all the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Father delights in having us with himself. Listen to this next part. The love of God delights, the love of God delights in satisfying itself about me. I don't think we grasp the idea of how important it is to God to have us in His company.

Because look what He's done to get us there. He has recreated us in Christ and put away from us anything that's displeasing to Him. For what reason? So that we could be all polished up people? Looking good? No. So that He could have us in His presence because He loves us.

And the disciples, these first two disciples, when John points them, they somehow know that they can approach him. And he says, what are you looking for? And they said, well, we want to know where you're going because we want to go with you. And he said, well, come and see. Have any of you ever gone to the Lord Jesus and said, where are you going? I want to go with you. Where are you? And he'll say to you, come and see. Now, we talk a lot about being conformed to the image of Christ. The other interesting thing about this is that if you and I go and see where He is, we are going to be shaped by the grandeur of the place and the person. Do you understand what I'm talking about? something that just overwhelms me sometimes.

We are never admitted into the presence of God like a stranger. Never. We are transformed by the Spirit of God into the image of Christ so that God can have fellowship with us and we can have it with Him on His level. So that we know that we belong there and that we can rest there with Him.

And you do it This is the vehicle where you find out what He did in order to get you and make you acceptable to Him. We like to talk about the mechanics a lot, but we don't talk very much about the actual reality of what it's like to be in the presence of the Lord Jesus. But I think John, above all the other writers of the Word of God, understands that. He really understands intimacy with Christ. In terms of relationships, the highest satisfaction one can have is to be with the one they love. And trust me, Christ loves us a lot more than we love Him, and He desires that we know Him and be with Him. So, does it seem like the disciples went very easily with Him? It does to me. You've got to go that way. Why do you think that is? You think it's just because... I mean, it's interesting.

He's walking down the street or walking down the road and nobody recognizes him for who he is until John the Baptist says, Behold the Lamb of God. So, I mean, nobody knows. He's in a crowd. And here's these two disciples, and John says it again and points to them, and he's doing what his ministry is.

The effect of his ministry is to attach, at this point, Jews to him. By the way, which Jews? The whole nation? or specific ones. Believing Jews are the remnant. These guys that are going to be called here are part of the Jewish remnant. And that's one reason why they're so easily persuaded to go with the Lord Jesus. And here's another factor. When God does a work, a long time before the work actually shows up, He's at work behind the scenes. He's doing things relating the knowledge of the truth to the people that he's going to affect in the future.

And then when the light of the gospel comes, there's no difficulty, there's no conflict. The battle's already been won. That was true of my salvation. I bet it's true of a lot of your stories. And as you grow in Christ, you recognize that when you got to a certain point and you moved on by faith, the work had already been done. You weren't laying new groundwork. God had already done it so that when you're asked to take the next step, it's just, oh yeah, I'm not straining it a bit about this. God has prepared my heart.

The circumstances have all been orchestrated. And so when he calls me, I'm there. And I'm not fighting it. See that? A quote. Two disciples and John. One asked, where dwellest thou? The heart is set on the discovery of where he is. It is vain for a man to tell me his heart is on a person if he is indifferent as to where the person is.

If then you be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God. That verse in Colossians is a very interesting verse because it's one of those imperatives, it's a command, based on, since you be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above.

How do you do that? I've got a better question. What would motivate you to do that? To seek those things which are above? Grace? Your faith? Inside of you, here you read this verse that says, since you've been risen with Christ, I want you to seek those things which are above. And you say, okay, no problem. And how did that seeking Him above get to be important to you? Enough to where you respond.

Because really, as a young believer, what's your focus? What can Christ do for me? Right? But as you grow and you recognize, hey, I am risen and I understand what risen means in terms of my co-crucifixion, burial, resurrection with Christ, my freedom positionally from my sin nature, and that, you know what?

When he says, seek those things which are above, he really means it. Set your mind, your affection on things above and not on things of the earth. And then he tells you why. Why? Because you... That's right. You can do this because you died. You're separated from all that would keep you from coming to me.

So when you get an exhortation like that in Paul's epistles, Paul doesn't ever lay that out until he's already laid the groundwork and the door has been opened and all the preparations have been made. And notice, since you'll be risen with Christ, seek those things. What are the things? What are they? The Christ himself. Yeah. That's right. That's right. And the spiritual things really are Christ himself. He personally with him. Okay. Now, I hope you can see that John already has a handle on this heavenly intimacy.

And even though he's writing a gospel pointing at the Jewish remnant to attach people to Christ, he understands that the center and focus of everything is Christ himself. What's the word rabbi mean? This means teacher. Do you think that the reason that the disciples followed him is because they thought, oh, this guy's a great teacher?

He hadn't said anything yet. He said, if I said to you, what are you looking for? And you said, oh, you're a great teacher. I'm going to follow you. And that's all I said. So there's a there's a recognition on their part. Of the effect of grace on them. Do you think at this point they... Well, maybe I'll ask it this way. At this point, who do you think they think Jesus is?

The Son of God, the King of Israel. Son of God, King of Israel. Later, he says that. Nathaniel says it right at the back. So they know that he's... The other thing they know is he's the Messiah, they think. He's the Son of God and he's the King of Israel. The King of Israel is important, if you're a Jew. because the Messiah was going to take over and fix things politically. So, when these disciples follow him, what position does the Lord Jesus take with them? Now understand, up until this point, the Lord Jesus is undercover. Nobody knows who he is. He hasn't been doing covert teaching in Bethlehem. He hasn't been doing any of that. He's had no ministry at all.

Now he's on the road. So what's the position he's going to take immediately with those that come to him? Leader, teacher, position of authority. He accepts their allegiance. He's not reluctant. He says he takes the position right away and he's the center, immediately he's the center of the souls that he gathers. See that? Immediately. There's no warm-up, he is that. And he accepts that role right away.

Now, Peter comes to him in verse 41 talking about One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. And he first found his own brother Simon and said to him, We have found the Messiah, which is translated the Christ. We found him. Israel's been looking for a Messiah forever. We found him. And he brought him to Jesus. And now when Jesus looked at him, he said, You are Simon, the son of Jonah.

You shall be called Cephas, which is translated as stone. So, what's the significance of immediately the Lord Jesus looks at Peter? Now, we know Peter pretty well around here and we know he's not the quiet, shy, retiring type. He's a type A personality and always getting in trouble with his mouth. and always doing things beyond the scope of what he's been called to do. And the first thing the Lord Jesus says to him is, I'm going to change your name. What's the significance of that in terms of Jesus's authority? Now understand something.

These people don't know. They call him the Son of God, but they don't know that he is God. They don't know that he's creator. They don't know anything about him. The focus is the fact that he's the Messiah. Do you see what I mean? Now, we can say, oh, he's God and he can do whatever he wants. They don't know him as that. He's a man walking around in front of them.

But he's taking this position of authority to change Peter's name to Cephas. Now, who else had this power? in the Word of God. Who had this power to name things? Adam did. So, it's interesting. Adam and the Lord Jesus Christ are both what we would call federal heads of races. And both of them have that power to change people's names.

Now, in a little history, God bestows names, Adam bestowed names, the Lord Jesus bestowed names, The great kings who claim this power have done the same. Eve sought to do it, but she was mistaken. Although God can give an understanding heart, which under his influence speaks a right in this respect. Lots and lots of kings, and I don't know if much of you are history buffs, kings will do this.

They'll change some of their subjects' names. If they don't like their name, they'll give them a new one. And it's a position of authority. They have the right to change your name. So, again, the Lord Jesus is taking a position of authority by changing Peter's name to Cephas.

Now, this next question I probably ask it because I come from a Catholic background. Does Matthew 16, 18 mean that Peter is the foundation of the church? Yes? Matthew 16, 18 says, I say unto thee, thou art Peter. And upon this rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. The interesting thing is, is that Christ is the rock. Peter is a stone or the pebble.

Big difference. And so Christ himself declared it the body of Christ to be future. As a crucified risen savior, he had not yet become the object of saving faith. No one could believe in or preach the present grace salvation at a time when he did not believe that Christ would die or be raised from the dead, Luke 18.31. There could be no church until it was purchased with his precious blood, until he rose to give it resurrection life, and until ascended to be the head over all things to the church, or until the Spirit came on Pentecost through whom the church might be formed into one body, through whom Christ might be coordinator by his indwelling presence. So there's a million reasons why Peter would not be the foundation or the bedrock or the cornerstone of the church. The Lord Jesus has to be. It's his body. He gives it life. That's part of my Catholicism there.

What's the significance of Jesus being from Nazareth? We didn't learn this. I learned this in the grace class. It's very interesting because Nathanael said to him in verse 46 or 45, Philip found Nathanael and said to him, we found him of whom Moses and the law and also the prophets wrote Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. And Nathanael said to him, Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Philip said to him, Come and see. So what's the big deal about Nazareth? Because Philip first rejects the invitation to come and see the Messiah. And he does it solely on the basis of where this Messiah is from, Nazareth. What's the big deal about Nazareth? It's way more than that. It has the reputation of having the lowest of the low life of all of Israel live there.

You know, and I was I was trying to be polite this week and think about how could I draw a parallel? Let's see. You know, out of the suburbs of Denver, I thought, no, I defend somebody. And then I thought I thought of one. The people that I'm aware of. that are considered to be the lowest of the low are the Palestinians. They are a group of people that have no country, and nobody wants them. The Arabs don't want them, the Jews certainly don't want them, but they've got to deal with them. They're just nasty people. People don't like them. Even their own Arab brethren don't like them.

On Thursday night at our Bible study, we were having a conversation about different cultures discriminate against different people. And I was reading something about these towns in Oklahoma that after the Civil War, the groups of blacks went to Oklahoma in the land rush and they created like 80 towns and they were all, they had colleges and banks and everything. And eventually a lot of them were wiped out by bigoted white people.

And then Anecia was there. and she grew up in the islands, and I know in the Caribbean islands, what culture do you think is discriminated against there? The Chinese. If you happen to be Chinese and you live in Jamaica, you don't have it good. You just don't, because the Jamaicans discriminate against you. So whatever culture you're in around the world, there's always some ethnic group or people from some town or some place that are always considered way down here. That's how Nathaniel looked at it from Nazareth. Nothing ever came out of Nazareth that was ever any good.

So it's kind of interesting that even cultural prejudice is alive and well. Before you move on, I have a little phrase there where he refers to the Lord as the son of Joseph. Is there any significance to that? Does that indicate how they conceived the Lord? It's interesting right here that, again, they're saying, well, he's the Son of God, or he's the Messiah, and he came from Nazareth, and he's Joseph's son. Do you think any of these people understood that the Holy Spirit was really the Father of the Lord Jesus? How many people knew that? three that I know of, Joseph, Mary and the Lord Jesus. Nobody else knew that. They had no idea that this human standing in front of them was God himself.

What were the Jews expecting the Messiah to be? Were they expecting a human like King David who would be mortal and die in a certain time in history? I don't think any of the Jews anticipated that the Messiah was going to show up on the scene and die. I think their whole focus was, like we focus on what the Millennial Kingdom is going to be like, and Jesus is going to rule and reign from Jerusalem, and not only is he going to rule over Israel, but he's going to rule over the whole world. That was their focus of who the Messiah was going to be.

And especially now at this time in history when they are a conquered nation and the Romans are all over the place and they're running things. They're allowing the Jews to function in their religious environment to some degree, but Judaism isn't operating as God designed it to be. It's a corrupted system at this point. And so they're looking for somebody to come along who would kick the Romans out of town, make Israel the greatest nation on the earth. That's what they were really looking for.

I don't even think, I don't know enough to know if a thousand year was a picture, was a framework that they were operating in. I think their entire focus was this man or this person would show up and he would relieve us of all of our problems, and we would become a great nation, and rule over not only the Middle East, but everywhere, like Rome was doing to them, oppressing them.

Because, you know, if you live under a conquering nation, I mean, some of the subtle things they do is collect taxes from you, keep you under the thumb. You can't prosper. your whole existence is predicated upon whatever their will is, whatever the whim is. This isn't like what we're doing in Iraq. This is like what Nazi Germany or the Japanese did to the countries they took over, like that.

Well, what they were looking for was somebody to get them out of that situation and to make them a great nation. all the way through John's Gospel, all the way to the Cross, all the way to the Resurrection, right up to the Ascension and Pentecost, they're still looking for this Messiah who's going to come and fix everything politically. That's true. That's exactly right.

So you can see why Nathaniel is thinking, You've got to be kidding me. The Messiah of Israel, the King of the Jews is from Nazareth and he's Joseph's son? Give me a break. He didn't go to Yale. I think their focus is still the same focus that the Messiah is going to come and then he's going to solve all their problems. Well, I was going to say, when Stoke refers to him as the son of Joseph, that also says that he didn't realize that he was the son of God. He didn't.

Yeah. And I wonder, though, if there were other disciples that were there that didn't know that either. You know, it's interesting, when we get to chapter 13 and we start to go through this private ministry of the Lord Jesus to the disciples, it's amazing how many times he will teach them, here's who I am, here's who I am, here's who I am. And you know what their response is? Huh?

That's their response. And he has to tell them over and over again. But then he tells them, you know, look, I'm going to give you the Spirit. And when you get him, you're going to remember all this stuff that I told you, and it's going to make sense to you. Because he's trying to talk. I mean, think about it. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and he's speaking spiritually. They're listening humanly.

They can't understand what he's saying. They don't know what he's talking about. You know, we sit here, and we, Monday morning quarterback, looking at verses like this, and we think, well, gee, you know, these guys, they're really, maybe none of them went to school. They're really dumb. No, it isn't that at all. It's that they just don't know the capacity.

They know enough to follow him. They think he's probably the Messiah, and he's going to start doing miracles and other things that are going to cement the relationship, but they have a very small scope of who they're dealing with. I mean, we could compare the Jews of that time with people today.

I mean, we're all human. We think that if we get a conservative in the office, everything is going to be perfect. Sure. Especially if he's a Baptist or liberal socialist. Yeah. Everything's going to go. Yeah. Yeah. It's the human mindset. Sure. Or if you're a liberal, it's the other way around. If we get a liberal in office, everything's going to be wonderful. Those conservatives, we don't want them. So I think they had a good sense of who he was.

Just a couple of minutes. One of these guys says, yeah, you're right. Yeah. For me to be. Yeah. I think the son of Joseph references simply didn't have last name. Yeah. So which Jesus, the one from Nazareth? No, I agree with you. And I think after the son of Joseph. Yeah. OK. I know who that guy is. Yeah.

And I think you're right about that in terms of his ability to draw them to himself and them thinking from a Jewish standpoint, this is really somebody special and he deserves to be followed. In terms of what we know who Christ is and the reasons we follow him and the reason we belong to him, no. But enough to attract them, I mean enough to take them all the way up to the cross. And this three-and-a-half-year ride they're about to begin with the Lord Jesus is not going to be fun and games the whole way. It's going to start out pretty positive, but it's going to be difficult at times.

But they stick with them. They do. Yeah, and I've heard Verne talk about that, that there was a sect in there that believed that there were going to be two of them. One that would die for the sins of the nation, and one that would rule and reign. I don't think so. And here's another thing they don't understand. If they're thinking that, well, maybe this is the Messiah that's going to die for the sins of the nation, they certainly don't have any concept of the fact that it's going to be God who's going to do it. that this one who will be crucified will be God himself. They have not a clue about that.

Because he's a man, he's standing right there in front of them. One other thing about this, or a couple other things. The Lord Jesus receives them and they abide with him and he calls upon them to follow him. And what he's saying to them is, look, we don't have any world where we can abide, no center in which gathers around itself those rightly disposed by grace. No prophet, no servant of God could. Christ is the one center of the gathering of the world.

That's one thing. The next thing is that then following supposes that we are not in God's rest. Is this God's rest here? No way. In Eden, no one was called to follow. Anybody. You know why? because they're at rest. And we get to be in heaven. There'll be no following because we'll be at rest. It's perfect joy and rest there. In Christ we have an object, a divine object, giving us a clear path through the world in which we cannot rest with God because there's sin here. So there's a calling here that's going on, not only to these disciples but us, to understand that our walking with the Lord Jesus is through this world to the place of rest. That's what the following is, and I think they understand. I don't want to use the word hope, but I think that their understanding is great and their hope is high, maybe is the way to say it.

When you're out evangelizing, which you all do on a regular basis, just come and see a good invitation. What do you think? Actually, if you think about it, if our job, evangelistic job, is to point people to Christ, come and see is a great phrase. Because when you're presenting the gospel message to someone, what are you telling them? What are you inviting them to do? And when I say to you, believe, what am I asking you to do?

Take Christ for who He is. Think about this. I'm really asking you to leave where you are and come to Him. Isn't that what I'm doing? I'm saying to you, look, if you want to leave the world you live in and the sin that is attached to you and everything you know yourself to be, then you leave that and you come over here to Christ and there He is. The problem with evangelism today is that the message has been translated to, well, he's come into your world to fix your problems. Come and see is a much more descriptive phrase as to what evangelism really is. You leave what you are and come to him. It's a positional change. Yeah, absolutely. And a total change.

Now, Nathanael said to him, I'm sorry, in 47, Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said, Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit or guile. And Nathanael said to him, How do you know me? And Jesus answered and said to him, Before Philip called you when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. So how does he know him? because he's God? I thought he put aside all of his godly glory when he became a man. How does he know Nathaniel? Nathaniel's an interesting guy because he's kind of a representative guy here. Notice the discussion about the fig tree? What's the fig tree a symbol of? Israel, the nation of Israel. And the fig tree that doesn't bear fruit is the nation of Israel. Nathaniel is a figure of the remnant.

The Lord Jesus says, you don't have any deceit in you. You're an honest man. There isn't any guile. You're a man who seeks the truth unvarnished and doesn't need any compromise. And when he says that, when the Lord says that to Nathanael, Nathanael answered and said to him, Rabbi, you are the son of God, you are the king of Israel.

So him saying to, the Lord Jesus saying to Nathanael, before Philip called you when you were under the fig tree, I saw you, is that, he says, oh my goodness, teacher, son of God, king of Israel, is that what did it? Yeah. Yeah. Now, does that mean that Nathaniel came from some place where the Lord didn't see him and and the Lord said, oh, by the way, you don't know this, but I saw you sitting under the tree, the fig tree. I think so. I think so.

And had such an impression on on Nathaniel that look at his response. But Nathaniel is another one of these representative guys, he does. The Lord manifests himself to the heart and the conscience of Nathanael. And his response is to confess him as Son of God, King of Israel.

Now, I must confess I thought a lot about what does he mean by Son of God and does he understand what Son of God is? Think he does? What do you think? As we know that Jesus is the second person of the Trinity and Son of God means position? Offspring? What? Origination.

Do you think he was saying, you know, you are God and you are his son? Do you think he knew that? What do you think? I don't think he knew that much. Knew he was a Messiah, but why son of God? Why'd he call him that? I mean, there's lots of references in the Old Testament of the nation of Israel being God's children and God's sons. What's the word here for son? Weos. So, adult son. Adopted son. Son in tremendous faith.

And what I'm saying to you is that I've agonized over this and I don't really have the answer. Because I don't think he understood Him as the Son of God as I would understand it. The degree to which he understood the Lord Jesus being the Son of God, I don't know. Because if he knew Him as the Son of God or God Himself, then as they get later on and towards the crucifixion, why would they abandon Him? Did they change their mind? Or maybe He isn't the Son of God because He got arrested and He's going to die?

And the other thing about these disciples is you have to understand, they are not born again in the sense that we are. They don't have the life of Christ. They're spiritually alive. Is that the first spell? They're spiritually alive in the sense that they have some understanding, but not like we have. They don't have resurrected life.

In Psalm 2, 6-9, The psalmist says, yet have I set my king upon the holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree the Lord has said unto me, thou art my son. This day have I begotten thee. Ask of me and I shall give thee the heathen of thine inheritance and the utmost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron. Thou shalt dash them into pieces like a potter's vessel. That's a description of what the Messiah, his characteristics would be, and he's called there the Son of God.

Now Nathaniel could have been referring to that verse and understanding this is the Messiah, he's the Son of God because I read it. I understand that. Okay, down to verse 51. Well, I'll read fifth. Jesus answered Nathanael and said, Because I said unto you, I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these. And he said to him, Most assuredly, I say to you hereafter, you shall see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.

So what does that tell us about who Jesus is? Number one, what does it tell us about the relationship between the angels and Christ? That they serve Him. What's significant about that? Well, is He? We know that, but Nathaniel's sitting there and looking at a man and he's saying, Jesus says to him, you're going to see greater things than this. You're going to see angels. Ascending and descending, you're going to see them serving me and I'm a man. That's really significant.

They understand that angels are messengers, but they're God's messengers. And they don't serve man in the sense that man is the one that is the primary focus of their service, other than God says, that's what you're going to do. The point that he's making to him is that, look, even angels, you'll see that they serve me. Even though the Lord Jesus by birth had taken his place among the children of men, he would, by that title, be the object of service to the most excellent of God's creatures.

You know, Hebrew says he's made a little lower than the angels. For what reason? That he might be exalted above them. And then there's the other scripture, I don't remember where it is, it says that you and I will judge angels. That's pretty cool. The expression is emphatic.

The angels of God himself should be in the service of the Son of Man, so that the remnant of Israel without guile acknowledges him to be the Son of God and King of Israel. The Lord declares him also to be the Son of Man in humiliation and deed, but the object of service to the angels of God. There's an awful lot of information in chapter 1 and I just want to do a quick review so when we go to 2 next week. The Lord has been revealed to us in chapter 1 as the Word of God and He's with God as light and life.

Secondly, as the Word made flesh, having the glory of the only Son with the Father. And as such, He's full of grace and truth, and they come by Him, grace and truth. And of His fullness, we've all received. And He has declared the Father. In other words, He is here to declare the character of the Father. He is the Lamb of God. the one in whom the Holy Spirit could descend, and who baptized with the Holy Spirit the Son of God. Here in the world he is seen as the Son of God, verse 14, he is in the glory of the only Son with the Father. He is in the bosom of the Father. We talked last week about where he came from. Where did he come from? He came from the bosom of the Father. Really significant, I think, to know that. Thirdly, his work, what he does, he's the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world.

And that closed the revelation of his person and his work. And then today we talked about John's ministry, that Jesus alone would become the gathering, the center of all men, Christ's ministry in which he calls people to follow him. His relationship to the church is not here, nor his function as priest, but that which belongs to his person and the connection of man with God in this world. So, next week we're going to start in on miracles and what the disciples called his public ministry.

Let's close. Dear Father, how we thank you for your word and how we thank you for our precious Lord Jesus. We thank you for the work of your spirit to cause us to behold him where he is, that we might be able to walk in intimacy with his very person. We thank you, we pray in his precious name. Amen.