Newsletter October 2019

Into God’s presence

 The following day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee, and He found Philip and said to him, “Follow Me.”  Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” (John 1:43-45)

     When you have discovered something very special, something that really excites you, what would you do?  Would you not want to share your joy and excitement with someone else?  Who would you tell?  Philip had just met Jesus, and Jesus had invited him to follow Him as His disciple.  Like many people at the time, Philip had been waiting for the Messiah, the promised Saviour of Israel, and he now recognized that Jesus was that one.  Imagine his excitement!  Who would he share that good news with? 

     Philip went to his friend Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”  Now, Nathanael was a good Israelite.  He knew the Holy Scriptures; he knew that, according to them, the Messiah, the Son of David would come from Bethlehen.  How could a man from Nazareth, that village down the road, be the Saviour of Israel?  Can anything good come from such an insignificant place?

     Nonetheless Nathanael comes along, and as he comes near, Jesus greets him with the words, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.”  A man who knows him without ever having met him?  A man who saw him sitting under a tree when he was yet far away?  Could it be that this Galilean was indeed the Messiah?  Nathanael declares, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.”  Clearly Philip was right after all!  Were the promises of God about to come true?  Was God’s kingdom of righteousness about to be established?  

     Yes, this Jesus was the Messiah; yet he was (and is) so much more!  “Very truly I tell you, you will see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”  Nathanael knew the Scriptures; he immediately understood what Jesus was referring to.  He had heard of Jacob, the Patriarch of God’s people.  He knew of Jacob’s dream in which the angels of God ascended and descended on a ladder that reached to heaven, into the very presence of the Almighty.  This Jesus was the true ladder to heaven.  The Son of Man had come to connect earth with heaven, God’s people with their God.  The Eternal One had come to His people.

     When you think of Jesus, what do you see?  Do you think he knows you as he knew Nathanael?  Are you conscious that his eyes are always on you, wherever you might be?  Do you believe that he is just, that he will fight your cause and meet your needs as you pray to him?  Yes, this is true; he does know and he does care.  Yet Jesus is so much more.  He came to connect earth with heaven.  He came to transform us by His Spirit so we could live in communion with the God who created us and the universe in which we exist.  When you think of Jesus, see heaven open!  And as you see Him, point others to Him.

 Pastor Konrad