Trinity Baptist Church

Making a Difference in the World

Nathanael: The Disciple Who Lost a Prejudice and Found the Savior

John 1:45-51

 

Please turn with me this morning to John 1.  We are continuing this morning a series of character studies on the 12 men that Jesus called and commissioned to come after Him and become His closest followers.  We call them the twelve apostles, and this morning we come to the sixth man that is found in the listing of the 12 -- a man by the name of Nathanael.

 

John 1:45-51

 

One of the most famous sports bloopers ever took place on January 1, 1929, in the Rose Bowl.  The Unicersity of California, Berkeley Golden Bears faced the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.  Midway through the second quarter, Roy Riegels, who played center for the Golden Bears, picked up a fumble by Tech's Jack "Stumpy" Thomason. Just 30 yards away from the Yellow Jackets' end zone, Riegels was somehow turned around and ran 69 yards in the wrong direction. The following describes what transpired from Riegels perspective:

 

“ I was running toward the sidelines when I picked up the ball," Riegels told The Associated Press. "I started to turn to my left toward Tech's goal. Somebody shoved me and I bounded right off into a tackler. In pivoting to get away from him, I completely lost my bearings. ”

—Roy Riegels

 

 

Teammate and quarterback Benny Lom chased Riegels, screaming at him to stop. Known for his speed, Lom finally caught up with Riegels at California's 3-yard line and tried to turn him around, but he was immediately hit by a wave of Tech players and tackled back to the 1-yard line. The Bears chose to punt rather than risk a play so close to their own end zone, but Tech's Vance Maree blocked Lom's punt for a safety, giving Georgia Tech a 2-0 lead.

 

Riegels was so distraught that he had to be talked into returning to the game for the second half. Riegels turned in a stellar second half performance, including blocking a Tech punt. Lom passed for a touchdown and kicked the extra point, but Tech would ultimately win the game—and their second national championship—8-7.

 

Roy was sincere.  He was as sincere as he could be, but he was sincerely wrong.  Well, in John chapter 1 we have the story of a sincere man, but just like Roy Reigles, it's the story of a man who was sincerely wrong.  Here was a man who the Bible shows us had a big prejudice, but who at the same time had no deceit.  You see, he was confused, he was upset, his mind was distorted -- but he liked it that way.

He was like a lot of people who live today.  They're good people who have wrong ideas.  They're sincere, but they're sincerely wrong.  His name was Nathanael.

 

Now, as you read through the gospels, what you'll find is that Matthew, Mark and Luke call him "Bartholomew," while John calls him "Nathanael."

 

 

Actually "Bartholomew" was his last name, and his first name was "Nathanael," so his full name was  really "Nathanael Bartholomew."  And since there's nothing given in Matthew, Mark and Luke except his name, this is really the only passage, with the exception of a brief mention in John 21, that gives us any details into his personality at all, so we're going to have to draw most of our truths and most of our lessons from this one passage of scripture that we just read.

 

There are several things that I want you to notice about this disciple who lost a prejudice and found the Savior.

 

 

He had a confrontation with Jesus.  He was confronted with Jesus by Philip.  Now, if you'll go back with me a couple of weeks, you'll remember that when we studied Philip we found that Philip was the level-headed man.  He was the facts and figures fellow.  He was the show-me disciple.  He had to figure things out and know in his own mind that Jesus was who He claimed to be.  So, Philip studied the scriptures and as a result he came to the conclusion that Jesus Christ was indeed the Messiah.  And Philip got so excited about it that he found Nathanael and told him!

 

Which leads me to say this -- if the Jesus you know is not the Jesus you share, then you don't know the same Jesus I know.  I mean, if you can't get excited enough about Jesus to want to tell somebody else about him, then I wonder if you even know Him.  You see, if you can't give your faith away, then you ought to give it up.  It's not worth much.

If you're not excited about this person called "Jesus" then there's something wrong with you.  When Philip came to the conclusion that Jesus was the Christ, He was the Messiah, the very first thought that jumped into his Jewish mind was, "I want Nate to know about Him." (Or did he call him "Bart?")  "O, Nathanael, listen!  We have found Him of Moses and the Prophets wrote."

 

What does the Old Testament prophecy about the Lord Jesus Christ?

 

He was to be the seed of the woman: Genesis 3:15

He was to be the seed of Abraham: Genesis 22:18

He was to be the seed of David: Jeremiah 23:5

He was to be of the tribe of Judah: Genesis 49:10

The time of his coming was prophesied in Daniel 9:24-25

He would be born of a virgin: Isaiah 7:14

The place where He would be born: Micah 5:2

His forerunner, John the Baptist: Malachi 3:1

He would be betrayed by a friend: Psalm 41:9

His triumphal entry into Jerusalem: Zechariah 9:9

He would be sold for 30 pieces of silver: Zechariah 11:12

He would die by crucifixion: Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53

He would be raised from the dead: Psalm 16:10

 

All of these scriptures prophesied and predicted the Lord Jesus Christ, and of course, not all of them had been fulfilled when Philip go so excited that he wanted to go tell Nathanael, but just think of the ones that had been.

 

If you are a student of the Old Testament, you know it’s hard to miis the fact that Jesus woudlbe Messiah.

 

For example, think about it.  God had predicted which race the Messiah would come from -- the human race, the seed of the woman.

 

Then God prophesied what division of that race the Messiah would come from -- He'd be a descendent of Seth.

 

Then God told us what nation of that division of that race the Messiah would come from -- the Jewish nation, a descendant of Abraham.

 

Then the Lord identified what tribe of that nation of that division of that race that the Messiah would come from -- the tribe of Judah.

 

He told us what family of that tribe of that nation of that division of that race the Messiah would come from -- the family of David.

 

Then God prophesied what person of that family of that tribe of that race of that division of that race the Messiah would come from -- the virgin.

 

He even prophesied what place and what time the Messiah would be born -- Bethlehem Ephrata. 

 

He told us in what year it would all happen. . .

 

Isn't it absolutely amazing how the Bible takes all of these scriptures and closes in on every side, until finally it centers upon one person - Jesus Christ of Nazareth?

 

 

 

 

That's one of the ways that Philip knew that Jesus was the messiah, and he ran to tell Nathanael and Nathanael had a divine confrontation, he was confronted with the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

 

verse 46

 

Now, what was the confusion that was in Nathanael's mind?  Well, as you'll notice there in verse 46, Nathanael had a prejudice.  He didn't like the Nazarenes.  Why?

 

Well, Nathanael was from Cana, and Cana and Nazareth were very close to each other.  Maybe they were high school rivals or something, but for some reason Nathanael just couldn't stand the Nazarenes.  He was prejudiced against the Nazarenes, and he had made up his mind that nothing good could come out of Nazareth, and since Jesus was from Nazareth, He was automatically bad.

 

This wasn't something that was unique to Nathanael.  As a matter of fact, this was a commonly held thought in those days because most people kind of looked down their noses at the Nazarenes.  You get the same train of thought in John chapter 7, verse 52 where somebody said, ". . . for no prophet has arisen out of Galilee."  Well, that wasn't true, but that's what they were saying.

 

And of course, Nazareth and Galilee were basically the same place, so they were saying "out of Galilee no prophet could come - why those country bumpkins up there in Galilee."

 

And the worst of the country bumpkins were the folks who lived in the little town of Nazareth.  So, Nathanael said, "He can't be the Messiah if He came out of Nazareth.

 

Now, let me ask you a question.  What caused Nathanael's prejudice?  One thing that really caused his prejudice was his ignorance.  You see, the mother of prejudice is ignorance and the child of ignorance is prejudice.

 

If Nathanael had really been studying the prophecies, he should have known that the Messiah would come from Nazareth because the Bible says in Matthew 2:23, "And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, "He shall be called a Nazarene."  You see, Nathanael's ignorance caused his prejudice.  If he'd known his bible, he wouldn't have had the prejudice that He had.

 

So, what is prejudice?  Prejudice is being down on what you're not up on.  That's what prejudice is. Prejudice comes when we make certain conclusions and assumptions without having all of the facts.

 

That's the way that so many people are with their conclusions.  They see something and then they transfer that something on to everything, and they say "All people of this race are bad" or "All people of this race or good" or "Nothing good can come from there" or "Everything good must come from here." That's what was wrong with Nathanael.  He had a prejudice -- "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?"

 

 

So prejudice is primarily rooted in his ignorance.  And by the way, there are a lot of people who aren't Christians because they are prejudice against the Lord Jesus Christ.  They're prejudice against the Bible.  They're prejudice against the things of the Lord.  They've heard certain things about Christians.  Or they've heard certain things about the Bible.

 

For example, every now and then I'll hear somebody say something like this -- "Well, I don't believe the Bible because the Bible is full of contradictions."  Have you ever heard anything like that?  You know what I want to do when somebody says that?  I just want to hand them my Bible and say, "O, really, can you show me one?"  "Well, I can't show you one, but know that it’s in there somewhere."  They don't know about a contradiction, it's just a prejudice.  Somewhere, sometime, they've heard somebody make that statement and they accepted it without investigating it.

 

Some people have heard about things that happened in certain churches and as a result they don't want Jesus.  You see, they've prejudiced against Jesus because of something they heard or saw in the life of some so-called Christian.  And so, what they have rejected isn't as much Christianity as it is

 

Nathanael's problem was his prejudice and his prejudice was rooted in ignorance.  That's why a lot of people aren't Christians because they are prejudiced against Christianity, and yet they have never taken the time or the effort to examine the facts for themselves.

 

 

 

I'll tell you if you were to see the Lord Jesus Christ as He is, if you were to learn the truth about the Lord Jesus Christ as it is, I couldn't keep you away from Jesus with a machine gun. 

 

Nathanael almost missed finding Jesus because he had a preconceived idea -- "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?"

 

 

Not only was he confronted with Jesus and confused about Jesus, He was converted to Jesus.  How did he come to the Lord Jesus Christ?

 

verse 46

 

There's the cure for prejudice.  "Come and see."  Investigate it for yourself.  I'm telling you that anybody in this building who wants to know the truth about God can know it.  Anybody in this building who wants to know the truth about Jesus Christ can know it.  And God's invitation is always, "Just come and see."  "Taste and see that the Lord, He is good."  Don't you tell me that it’s not real if you haven't investigated it, and I mean honestly investigated it.

 

Let me give you a challenge this morning.  If you want to know whether Jesus Christ is the Son of God or not; if you want to know if the Bible is the Word of God or not; if you want to know if Jesus Christ can save you or not and change your life or not, I want to say to you this morning -- "Come and see."

 

 

 

 

Oh, you may have some sort of personal prejudice.  You may have some idea or some hang up, but I know the cure for your personal prejudice -- come and see.  Just come and see.

 

But when you come, let me tell you how you're going to have to come.  First of all, you're going to have to come. . .

 

- Humbly

 

Matthew 11:25-26

 

Do you know what that means?  That means that you're going to have to come with a child-like mind.  "God has hidden these things from the wise and the prudent."  If you want to know the truth about Jesus, you're going to have to put away your formulas and your figures, you're hang-ups and your haughty spirit, because the Bible says that if you come to God that way, he'll hide these things from you and reveal them to those who come with a child-like faith. You're going to have to come humbly if you come.

 

You know why that is?  Because a little child is teachable, but I know some adults who are so proud and so fixed in their mind God Himself couldn't get through to them.  You see, a child is teachable.  He's humble.

 

 

Jeremiah 29:13

 

 

 

If you want to know, you can know, but you’ve got to come openly and sincerely.  God says, "You can seek for me, and you can find me when you come with an open heart."  Now, if you come with a divided heart, if you come with mixed motives, if you come looking for some sort of ammunition to back up your argument, you're not going to find the truth.

 

Some people are like the sign I saw that says, "My mind is made up, don't confuse me with the facts."  They don't want to know the truth about Jesus.  They don't come openly and honestly looking for the truth. Rather than trying to find the truth and discover a principle, they're defending a prejudice.  They don't want the condition of their hearts exposed.  That's why they fight.  They don't really want to know the truth.

 

Do you know how a lot of folks come to the Bible?  They come to the Bible with their minds made up, locked against the truth.  And if that’s your attitude, you’ll never find God.  But if you’ll come you'll have to come humbly and you'll have to come openly.  ". . . you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart."  And you’re going to have to come

 

 

There are some of you sitting there this morning saying, "Pastor, is this true? Can Jesus Christ really change my life?  Is there a life abundant and full of glory?"  There sure is, but how are you going to find it?

 

Proverbs 2:3-5

 

When you get as interested in knowing God as you are in having money, when your soul cries out and you hunger and thirst after righteousness, you'll have it

 

You see, the invitation this morning is simple: come and see.  But if you're going to come you'll have to come humbly like a little child.  You'll have to come openly with all of your heart.  You'll have to come diligently, really wanting to know.  But there's still one more thing.

 

 

Truth isn't something that you learn so that you can say, "that's interesting" and then put it aside and not do anything with it.  Truth is more than just interesting, it's unsettling.  Not only must you be willing to revise your ideas, you must be willing to reform your life.  What I'm saying is this -- if you want to know the truth about God you must be willing to do the will of God. Does that make sense?  Before you come you've got to surrender your will.

 

There were some people who wanted to know who Jesus was over in John chapter 7, and Jesus put this challenge to them -- "If anyone wants to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority."  Do you know what that means?  If you want to do the will of God you'll have the right knowledge.  If you really want to do the will of God.

 

Nathanael was dynamically converted because he came humbly, he came openly, he came diligently and he came submissively.  But he came.

 

Philip said to Nathanael, "Nathanael, come and see." Nathanael came, he saw and he believed.

 

Now, what was it that Jesus Christ showed him when he came?  Well, Nathanael hears Philip and comes walking up to Jesus and Jesus doesn't even speak to Nathanael, He says to those around him, ""Behold, an Israelite. . ."  And Nathanael thinks to himself, "He knows my race.  Big deal, I look like an Israelite."  Jesus said, ""Behold, an Israelite indeed. . ."

 

Nathanael says, "O, he knows that I'm a practicing Jew.  I really believe it.  ""Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit!"  "O, He knows how my mind works.  He knows that I put everything up there on the table."  So, Nathanael looks at Jesus and says, "How do you know me?  You've never met me?"  And Jesus says, ""Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you."  And that did it.

 

So, what was Nathanael doing under that fig tree?  I don't think he was doing anything wrong.  I think he was probably studying the Scriptures. You see, in that climate this was kind of like their air-conditioning.  Almost every home would have a fig tree outside the front door and people would get out there in the shade and sit underneath that fig tree.

 

I believe that Nathanael was studying the scriptures.  I believe that he wanted to know the truth, and the Lord Jesus Christ by His omniscience knew all about Nathanael.  So, Nathanael said, "O, He knows my race.  O, He knows my heart. O, He , knows my past.  He knows all about me.  How could He know all of these things?"

And that's all it took to convince Nathanael because he really wanted to know the truth and Jesus knew that.

 

Jesus just started with him where he was in order to get him to where He wanted him to be.  And Jesus will do the same with you today.  If you'll just be honest, Jesus Christ will start with you where you are and He will give you whatever is necessary in order to lead you to the truth.  If you really want to know the Lord Jesus Christ you can know Him and if you really want to find Him you can find Him today.

 

 

John 1:49

 

Nathanael is convinced, and so he said to Him, "Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!"  What did he call Jesus?  He called Him master, mediator and messiah.  The word "Rabbi" means master.  "Son of God" means mediator.  "The King of Israel" means messiah.  That was his confession.

 

I wonder this morning, are you willing to make that confession?  Are you willing confess the Lord Jesus Christ as your master?  The Bible says, "One is your master, even Christ."  Are you willing to confess Him as the "Son of God"? The Bible says "He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."

 

 

 

Are you willing to confess Him as the messiah, the King Israel and the King of your heart?  If you are, He will save you.

 

I'll guarantee you, based on the authority of this book "that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."  It's not enough to say it with your lips, you've got to mean it with your life.

 

Years ago in New York City, thousands of people stopped running their rat race, at least for a few minutes, to observe the courage and ability of a man named Harry Young. In order to see Young clearly, they had to watch him from across the street, and even then they had to crane their necks upwards.

 

You see, Young, in his ads and on his billboards, billed himself as "The Human Fly."  He was  a builderer; one of those guys that climbs skyscrapers.

 

Young had made quite a reputation for himself by clambering up the outside of buildings. If it looked like a building couldn't be scaled, he scrambled up, without using a net or any kind of safety harness.

 

It was truly a death-defying act until the day Young climbed the Martinique Hotel on Broadway. He was climbing -- surely, confidently, cleanly -- until he got near the top. There he failed to find the foot and toehold he needed. Reacting quickly, he grasped out toward a narrow outcropping.

 

The crowd groaned and Young's wife fainted as he fell and died on the pavement below.

 

Some said, in his hand was the remnant of a spider's web, a web he had thought was something solid.

 

But in truth, it couldn’t and didn’t support his weight.  He was sincere, but he tragically died because he was sincerely wrong.

 

That’s a tragic story, isn’t it?  But even more tragic is there are folks in Ardmore, OK this morning, who are trying to climb to Heaven and they're putting their trust in nothing any stronger than a crusty spider web when they ought to be putting their trust in the Rock of Ages, Jesus Christ.

 

Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me."

 

With Nathanael, we invite you this morning to confess Jesus as master, mediator and messiah.

 

Let’s pray.