Jesus Said, “I Saw You!”
John 1:35-51
If a farmer wants to plant something, what does he do first? He’ll likely cultivate the soil to prepare it. Similarly, God will cultivate our hearts first or nothing will be planted or grow properly.
If He’s planting something in the church, He’d cultivate our hearts in the church to prepare us for His work. So to prepare our foundation of faith, we need to recall how Jesus is that foundation. So let us look into our hearts and see how we can be cultivated in preparation for God’s work through us.
Review: Jesus was baptized because He wanted to prepare and accomplish God’s salvation plan with His disciples.
Pastor Daniel shared the account from the passage and the order of revelations of Jesus’ initiating His ministry. There is a “logical” gap from Nathaniel’s initial skepticism of Christ and then the sudden revelation of Jesus as the Christ. How was Nathaniel able to come to faith?
Question: Did you feel Nathaniel reacted in an odd fashion when reading the passage?
2 desires all humans have in their hearts.
We want to hide ourselves. We don’t want others to see our faults, recognize our mistakes, or judge our histories. We even double down on lies with more lies. When we’re afraid or timid, we speak up and loudly to conceal our fear. In our hypocrisy, we smile at those we hate. To avoid condemnation, we run from those who may witness our less than nature.
Question: Do you find yourself hiding or lying about yourself from time to time?
We also have a heart that wants to be understood by someone else.
Story: A woman lost her child through a tragic accident. Even years later, she was mourning so deeply but she still lost much weight, ate little, slept poorly, and sought therapy and medication as a remedy. Her family advised her to let go of her lost child, to move forward from the pain and move forward with her life. But she couldn’t. Until she met a contrarian to finally tell her that, “it’s ok that you’re struggling and going crazy,” she finally felt understood deeply and fell into deep rest that same night.
Question: Do you find yourself searching for this kind of acceptance and deep understanding?
Though we want to hide our sin and shame, we also want our hearts to be understood.
Nathaniel’s story is that of meeting someone who finally fulfilled those needs/desires. It’s not a logical leap but a realization of Nathaniel finally meeting someone who deeply understood him.
What’s the big deal about the fig tree? In scripture, it symbolizes people’s desire for the coming of God’s kingdom. Nathaniel finally met someone who commiserated his desire for the coming of God’s kingdom.
What does it mean who has no deceit? It refers to integrity and those who lack a mask when facing the world. Through this story, Jesus is calling out Nathaniel’s for his many layers of masks.
Christ sees us through to our deepest hearts. He sees our desires, our longings, our sins, our deceits. Jesus is not someone who exposes the wrongs in our lives, but one who meets us with redemption and compassion. When no one else could meet us at that level of understanding.
Only Christ knows us this way. With this knowledge we can be another who will empathize and see others who suffer the same desires in their hearts.
Story 2: There are two realms, heaven and earth. They were separated and we on earth long to return to heaven. There’s a ladder connecting the two realms that we could climb and angels and descend. But humans destroyed this ladder. But Jesus is the new ladder that reconnects us to heaven.
When we see injustice and suffering in the world, it’s easy to want to blame God even though God is blameless in these deeds. Why do people become so irate with these injustices? These people have an even greater longing for heaven. They feel a more intense loss from this separation and a stronger desire for the restoration of heaven.
Through Jesus, we can live a life of heaven while still on earth waiting to be reunited.
Question: Have you had these kinds of thoughts before? Does this help reframe your perspective on seeing sin in the world?
When someone comes to you and says, “I’ve found Jesus Christ!”
Your response would probably be skeptical, but instead of seeking logic, seek vulnerability and truth that connects us with empathy.
So instead of trying to run away from Him, we can confess who we really are and continue to live and fight despite the brokenness around us and reconnect ourselves and those around us to heaven again.
