John 1:1-18 — The Word Became Flesh
John 1:19-51 — The Testimony of John the Baptist, The Disciples
Thoughts about serving others
This link includes a list of posts about Serving the Least, the Lost, and the Lonely.
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Let the Word evoke words. May your life encourage lives.
John provides some narrative on Jesus’ selection of his disciples. I especially like the story of Nathanael (aka Bartholomew). Jesus found Philip and simply said, “Follow me” (John 1:43). Apparently Philip is not only aware of the prophets, he is looking for the Messiah and answers the call immediately. Philip seeks out Nathanael (my guess is they talked about the coming Messiah as a story that might happen someday) and John records, “Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law” (John 1:45). Nathanael’s response is classic, “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Even more profound is Philip’s response, “Come and see” (1:46).
Here we are given a great example for responding to those who are seeking, but find it hard to believe. Come and see. We simply invite people to come to church to see other believers, to come into a place of worship, a place where we gather to publicly show our devotion to Christ. We ask people to do this all the time.
“When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit” (1:47). Wow! Jesus declares Nathanael is truly an honest man, what an amazing, great compliment. Nathanael’s response, after asking how Jesus knows him: “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel” (1:49). Jesus doesn’t dismiss him because of his impertinent comment to Philip. Rather, Jesus sees beyond the careless words and looks into his heart. Face-to-face Nathanael (Bartholomew) sees the Messiah. Praise be to the God that looks beyond our foolish words and into our hearts. Such amazing grace.
p.s., Jesus’ words, “in whom there is no deceit” (John 1:47) keep ringing in my head. When studying a completely different topic, I found reference to a verse that really fits this comment perfectly, “Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord does not count against them and in whose spirit is no deceit” (Psalm 32:2). What an amazing statement from Jesus. He knows Nathanael’s indiscretion, his flippant response to Philip and “does not count [this sin] against” him. Further, he sees Nathanael as one “in whose spirit there is no deceit.” No surprise Jesus refers to the psalms, it’s just a connection I hadn’t seen before.