Nathanael - the man who sat under the fig tree

 

COLERAINE EVANGELICAL CHURCH

SERMON NOTES FROM SUNDAY 22 JUNE 2025

JOHN 1 VERSES 35 TO 51 – MR CRAIG DENNISON

Recently in our congregation, I had the task of taking the youth fellowship. I asked everyone to name the 12 disciples. It was an interesting study because we ended up with 13/14 names. Included in this list were Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Mark and Luke are not part of the original intimate 12 disciples Jesus called. Another one of the common mistakes made was that they had Nathanael and Bartholomew also on the list as 2 separate people. Most commentators agree that they are the two same man. Nowhere in the gospels is Nathaniel mentioned and nowhere in John's gospel is Bartholomew mentioned. In the original Greek Bartholomew is actually a surname. The word "Bar" means a son of. This was a common way of identifying a person. Peter was called Simon, Son of Jonas. Bar was the surname and Nathanael the first name. His name means gift of God, God has given. As we look at the life of man he was most certainly a gift from God. God to this world. Gifted with the knowledge of the gospel. A preacher of the gospel. John 21 verse 2 Nathanael came from Cana in Galilee. This is the place where the Lord did his first recorded miracle of turning water into wine. This is all we have apart from John 1. From this passage we can learn much from him in terms of his faith and relationship with Christ. There are 4 things to learn from 

Firstly, his love of the scriptures. He loved the word of God. Whenever Philip approached Nathanael to tell him about the Saviour there is something telling about the description he uses, to relate Christ to him - he did not say "come and meet a man who will heal your body, take your aches and pains, make you rich and bless your bank account, someone who will entertain you and do all these miracles, fascinate your mind, come and meet a man who will take away all your problems." Sadly that is the kind of gospel being presented today. People say "come to Jesus for these frivolous reasons." They are all very real problems but the biggest problem we have is sin, separation from God, being not right with God, that we are on the broad road that leads to hell. Jesus dealt with their biggest problem on the cross of Calvary. He who knew no sin became sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. People are looking for another gospel. They have no interest in the true God, the God of the bible. You could fill this church with people and make all sorts of false promises. That is not the gospel. The apostle Paul said "we preach Christ crucified" and "woe unto me if I preach not the gospel." We are not to preach any other gospel whether men come in or not. Philip said of Christ "We have found him, of whom Moses in the law and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." (verse 45) We can see Christ in all of scripture. Jesus himself said "Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me." We have found the promised Saviour, the redeemer, the one who will take our sins away, the one who will reconcile us to God. Picture the excitement in Philip's face. He had found the Christ, the Messiah, the Saviour. Philp was saying "I cannot contain my excitement any more, I have found Jesus. Can you say "I have found the one who my soul loves, who went to the cross of Calvary and died for my sins, is gone to heaven to prepare a place for me." Can you say that? Do you tell your friends and family members and work colleagues "I have found the one who the bible speaks of, Jesus my Lord, Saviour and master?" He told Nathanael "we have found him." Why did he tell Nathanael? Because he had a burden to tell others. But he knew Nathanael would have wanted to hear about Jesus. Nathanael is an Israelite who had searched for the Messiah. In searching the scriptures he knew his need of salvation. Philip said to himself "I will tell him the good news." When Philip comes to Nathaniel and says "we have found him", he doesn't say "my bible knowledge is sketchy, fill me in." Philip did not have to explain to Nathanael, he knew who Moses and the prophets were speaking about. He had to simply say "we have found him." In verse 48 when Nathanael came to Jesus, Jesus said to him "Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree I saw thee." (verse 48) Jesus is telling Philp that he is the divine God. He is one person with 2 natures - fully God and fully man on earth." There was divine knowledge given to Jesus. Why did the Lord mention this? Why did he say he could see him under the fig tree? He was referring to Micah 4 verse 4 which Nathanael would have known - "But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it." Jesus knew that men like Nathanael would have rested in the hottest part of the day and as Nathanael sat there each day he would be reading the scriptures. He was not idle during that time. He was doing something spiritual - reading his bible. John Gill the commentator suggests the very passage he was reading or meditating on would have been Genesis 28 where Jacob saw a vision of a ladder reaching to heaven with angels going up and down. Why does he suggest this? Because in verse 51 the Lord does not say to Nathanael "I know where you where, what you were doing but I will blow your mind, I will tell you the exact passage you were reading." I am sure Nathanael wanted to have a vision just like that but Jesus was telling him he would see something even greater than that. Nathanael was a student of the bible. He was convinced that he was the Son of God. There are 3 things we should learn from Nathanael about reading the scriptures: firstly to love the scriptures. The psalmist said in Psalm 119 verse 105 "Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever: for they are the rejoicing of my heart."  Nathanael was reading God's word. "I rejoice at thy word, as one that findeth great spoil." (Psalm 119 verse 162). Nathanael secondly meditated on scripture - "Depart from me, ye evildoers; for I will keep the commandments of my God." (Psalm 119 verse 115)  "O how I love thy law! it is my meditation all the day." (Psalm 119 verse 97) Let God's word sink deeply into your heart. Thirdly Nathanael could see Christ in the scriptures. When we open our bibles we should seek Jesus. That should be our motive when we open the bible.

The second thing about Nathanael is - he overcame his bigotry. Verse 46 "And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see." To understand this we need to think about the background. Judah looked down on the people of Galilee. They were held in contempt by the Jews. Galileans were the lowest of all the people in Israel. In fact Galilee is where Jesus chose most of his disciples from. A reminder of our position - "But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty." (1 Corinthians 1 verse 27) The people of Galilee looked on anyone from Nazareth as uncultured, corrupt, evil and sinful. Nazareth in their opinion was a miserable place and no good thing could come from there. One time when Jesus was teaching in the synagogue in Nazareth the people wanted to kill Jesus by throwing him off a cliff. Whenever Philip comes along to Nathanael and tells him Jesus is from Nazareth, his old nature kicks in. He doubts whether this is possible. To be fair to Nathanael he was thinking of Micah 5 verse 2 "But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been of old, from everlasting." So Nathanael knew Bethlehem was the place the Saviour was to come from. Think of Jonah who was told to go to Nineveh. He was a reluctant missionary. Jonah was a prophet and a preacher and when he was told to go to Nineveh he refused to go. It was not because he was afraid of them or that he was unskilled in the language. He didn't like them. His own bigotry was the reason why Jonah got on the ship to Joppa. Here Nathanael displayed bigotry. Many people make similar excuses - because of Christians and the way they live their lives. "I will not have a Jew to be my Saviour." Today some will say "I do not want to be tainted with Protestant evangelism." Many make excuses why they will not take Jesus as Saviour. It becomes a stumbling block between God and themselves. They are setting their own pathway. We must lay down all bigotry and take him as he is presented in the gospel. Jesus said "I am the way, the truth and the life" and "I am the door by me if any man enter in he shall be saved." We need to lay down our foolish reasons and come to Jesus, to overcome our bigotry, to become a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Thirdly, his commendation from Jesus - verse 47 "Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!" People in those days would have said "Abraham is our father, we don't need you." Yet Jesus said to Nicodemus "ye must be born again." There are people today who say the Jews are God's people and will therefore be in heaven. Yet Paul said "my hearts desire is that Israel might be saved." The Jews are not saved, they are still in the darkness of sin. Many say that the Jews do not need to believe in Jesus, they will be found in heaven." Jesus told Nicodemus "ye must be born again." Paul preached to the Jews telling them of their need of conversion. To tell them they didn't have to do this was to give them a false gospel. Hebrews 11 says "By faith Abraham."  Being circumcised does not get you into heaven. You only have to go through Romans and Hebrews and see that. Jesus commends Nathanael for being a true Israelite, a true child of faith. The words "no guile" means no deceit, do doubleness of heart. He is not saying one thing and believing another. It is not saying "I believe in God" and then living like a follower of the devil. You are a true child of God, not like the Jewish leaders who will arrest me and put me to death. What a testimony to have. True to our convictions and faith. People can be Christians on Sunday and live like the devil the rest of the week. We are to not have any doubleness of heart, to be sincere in our faith at all times. That is not to say a good man can make mistakes - think of David who committed adultery with Bathsheba because of his lust for pleasure or Gehazi who pursued Naaman for personal wealth or Demas who left his first love. Think of Abraham who lied about Sarah being his sister to gain credit with Pharaoh and Abimelech.

Finally, notice Nathanael's steadfast faith - verse 49 "Nathanael answered and saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel." Nathanael genuinely confessed his faith to Christ and confessed it before all the others around him. Christians should not be ashamed to confess their faith in Christ. That they are believers and followers of the Saviour. There are people living in countries where to believe in Christ means persecution. People are put in prison for their faith. Many are fearless in doing that. Nathanael confessed 2 things - he is the Son of God. For a Jew that was a remarkable thing to confess. One of the charges the Jews made against the Lord was this. Many are turning from that belief today. Some of the bible translations are changing these words to "God's chosen one". They believe it makes it easier for people to believe. The word "begotten" is another word that has been changed. The only begotten son is the Son of God from eternity past. From before the world began he was the Son of God. People say he became the Son of God. That is a heresy. If he is not the eternal son he is not God. There is a big impression in bible translations to give the impression that he became the Son, that he has not always been the Son. It has been dropped out of the bible. For Arabic translations they are putting in "God's beloved". How can you win a Muslim to Christ if you are presenting a false gospel? They cannot stomach a Son of God. They believe they will not win them. They are presenting another gospel and another God to sinners. Nathanael also makes profession "the King of Israel". That was a bold declaration. Israel has been waiting for the Messiah, the King. Nobody has acknowledged him a King of Israel before. Nathanael's prejudice and bigotry was overcome when he get a proper view of Christ. When we see Jesus for who he is - he is God's Son, the Messiah - that will transform us. We need to be transformed. It is said that a tightrope walker will keep his eyes on his target, not looking down and will reach his destination in so doing. Keep your eyes on the destination. The apostle Paul instructed us to "look unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith." We should not be like Peter in the boat. He took his eyes off Christ and looked at the water and waves. Then he began to sink. Let us keep our eyes on Christ. We have the example from Nathanael. He was the one who simply followed Jesus. That is all Jesus calls us to do. Are you a follower of the Lord? Do you follow him? Do you seek to live for him day by day? Do you follow him in obedience? 

What became of Nathanael? Church history tells us he took the gospel to India and then to Armenia where he was martyred. He was crucified head down. He was guilty of converting the king of Armenia to Christianity. The king's brother ordered his execution. Armenia and Ethiopia fought over who was the first country converted to Christ. Armenia declares itself Christian today. The Lord used Nathanael who had been sitting under the fig tree. He had an encounter with Jesus who used him to take the gospel to Armenia. All because of his faithful witness. He did not give up. He kept on going. He pressed on towards the mark. He kept his eyes on Jesus.