He Already Knows

And today’s sermon is called He Already Knows. He already knows. Jesus, we thank you that you are God, that you are glorious, that if we saw you in your glory, nothing else would matter. We would give up everything for just another glimpse of your glory. You’re

Prayer And The Theme Of Glory

so much better than all of creation. Yet the beautiful things in this creation reflect and they are a foreshadow of your glory. So when we see a beautiful sunrise, or we see a child being born, or we see, you know, fireworks going off, all these things give us an idea of your glory. And Jesus, we surrender ourselves to you. We ask that you would fill us with your spirit this morning. Give us understanding and wisdom. In your name we pray. Amen. Do I have a story for you? Okay.

Airport security. We love it, right?

Well, in the 90s, late 80s, early 90s, it was a little different than it was today, remember? I mean, it was like the wild west of airport security. You could basically do whatever you want. Well, I my my stepdad was a pilot, and so I had these write-my own tickets.

Airport Security And Hidden Contraband

And I could go, you know, wherever I wanted, and I would frequently fly all the time. I flew hundreds of times when I was in my young, younger age. So I would fly frequently from Colorado Springs to Denver, which is a 15-minute flight. But hey, my mom lived in Denver, my dad lived in Colorado Springs, so I would fly back and forth all the time for free. So my dad would constantly be dropping me off at the airport, and I’d and I’d he’d take me through security because you could back then. And um one day I was getting old enough to start packing my own bags. So I’m like, okay, get to pack my own bags. So what I did is I packed my bags with my entire knife collection. Everything from Swiss Army knives to Rambo Bowie knives. And I probably had 20 to 25 knives in my bag that I put in security to go carry on. You should have seen the security guy, the the the radar or the x-ray guy’s face when it went through, because he was just like, What? Is this a joke or something? So so he just like kind of like because we’re the only people there, it’s like Color Springs Airport. There’s like four people in the entire place. So he just calls my dad over and he like points at me. He’s like, Do you see this? And my dad’s like, oh no. And he’s like, Sean, what did you do? I was like, what? I didn’t know. I I thought it was just like I wasn’t gonna kill anyone with my knives. I wanted to take them and kill squirrels up in the mountains or something. I don’t know. I was a weird kid. Alright. So today’s a little more different, right? Security is a bit more intense today. Have you we were we were on our way back from Nepal, and Zyman, can I use you as an example? Well, too late, I’m gonna so he had bought this really cool knife, like it was like a sword, the full-on sword, uh, as a souvenir in Nepal. And the problem is, you guys heard about our trip. We spent 30 hours in one plane on the way back, right? And it was just a nightmare. And so we land in Chicago, we are at zero percent life, we’re just barely alive, and we have 40 minutes to get from the international departures all the way to our flight taking off. Somehow we made it, actually, it was a miracle, but in the process, we weren’t allowed to check in our bags because we’ve been fine, but we had to put them through security, so he had his sword taken away. I know, so sad. So if you have an extra sword laying around, he he could use it. But if you even leave your phone or your laptop, like or a tiny little knife in your pocket, even if you keep your water bottle, none of it gets by their eagle eyes today, right? It’s like they get they they they’re gonna find it. So if everybody eventually qu quits, you know, trying to hide stuff and they just put it on. Like we all learn eventually, just put it on the thing and let it go through because they’re gonna find it. We can’t hide our wallet or phone, our keys, or our belt, our shoes, because hiding this stuff only delays the process, right? And then everyone’s yelling at you, and then you feel embarrassed because everyone’s looking at you. Well, the question we have today is what are we doing today? Are we hiding something from God? And that’s that’s an important question to ask ourselves. Are we hiding something from God? I’m afraid we spend years trying to hide what he already sees. And when we say it out loud, it’s like, oh, it’s so dumb. Like, why do I try to hide from God? He obviously sees everything. But

The Question We Avoid With God

throughout John chapter 1, every person Jesus meets discovers this same thing, which is that Jesus already knows. Jesus already knows. So let’s look. We start in verse 35. He says, again the next day, John stood with two of his disciples. We’re talking about John the Baptist, John the Baptizer. If you need a visual, look at Russ. Same guy. John the Baptist, he’s standing with two of his disciples, right? And he and he’s looking at Jesus. So he sees Jesus come as he walked, he said, Behold the Lamb of God. So we saw before that he said this on a previous day when he was like, Behold the Lamb of God. But this time he’s not speaking to a bunch of people. He’s just, dude, that’s the Lamb of God. He’s just enamored. He’s just speaking what’s on his mind to his closest buddies. That is a great pastor. That is a great man. You know, he doesn’t care about all the people following him or the crowds, all the people that are listening to him. He is simply in awe of Jesus. He’s full of worship, and it is spilling out in just praise. Oh, behold, there he is, right there. He’s so amazing. He’s so wonderful. We we’ve experienced this. When we hear, when we say, when I say, Did you see that? I do that to my wife all the time. Did you see that? Did you hear that? Like an elf when he does that huge burp. And he’s like, Did you hear that? That’s funny. That’s funny, right? Or we say, Holy smokes, that was awesome. What are we doing? We’re praise is coming forth out of us. Or when we say, I can’t get enough of this. That’s worship, that’s praise coming forth out of us. And that is actually the truth about doom scrolling. You guys have heard of doom scrolling? It’s when you get on Instagram or Facebook and you just keep scrolling videos. Because it builds this uh neurological response where your your brain gets a little hit of the chemicals of pleasure. Right? What’s that called? You there you go. See? I shouldn’t be teaching. This is we we are longing to find the thing that matters, the thing that satisfies us. We’re longing for that. Every day we long for it. And it’s not that we have terrible lives or we’re always missing out on something, but we’re built with this consistent longing for satisfaction. It’s actually for glory. It’s why it’s like it’s called, some people call it a God-shaped hole in our hearts. That’s why we long for more. And that longing is not bad, it’s where we go to get it satisfied that matters. We have we long to have this inner thirst quenched. And John the Baptizer, he was drinking deeply of the water of the fountain of life from Jesus. And his disciples, his two disciples, they were splashing in the water that was bouncing off him, that was flowing out of him, because he was drinking so deeply. They were following close enough to hear him say under his breath, Behold the Lamb of God. Man, he is awesome. Jesus is so awesome. That’s what’s going on here. I love these little pictures that John gives us. And why do you think John, our author, John, knew so many of the details of this little story? He was one of these guys. We’ll find that out here in a minute. So verse 37. The two disciples heard him speak and they followed Jesus. All right, so this is Andrew and John. And they choose to leave behind what they’re comfortable with, what they’re familiar with, and just follow Jesus. And this is a vital moment for every every person. You hear about the living water that’s gonna quench your thirst, and then you make a choice to follow him.

Leaving Comfort To Follow Jesus

You have to make that choice, right? No one can make that choice for you. Your parents can’t decide for you. You can’t force your kids. In fact, did you know that the harder you try to force your kids to go to Jesus, the more they will not? You can lead them and you can pray for them, but every person has to make their choice this choice themselves. Your friends won’t stand before God with you at the end, right? You’re not gonna have your crew backing you up saying, We all rebelled against God. No, it’ll be you alone in front of the God of the universe, and he’s gonna say, What did you do with my beloved son? I gave my son for you. I get he, I killed him, I allowed him to be killed. I I chose that for you. I chose you. Did you choose me back by accepting my son? Every person is gonna have that conversation. And for those who said, Yes, I chose your son, he’ll say, Well done, my good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord, and other people he’ll say, I never knew you. Oh, but I went to church all the time. But did you choose? Did you leave and follow? That’s something everybody has to decide. Will I follow Jesus or the world? Both claim to satisfy you. The world says if you buy these stocks, you will be satisfied. If you watch the show, you will be satisfied. Until when? Until the next show comes out. Then you have to watch that one. You have to use this AI, you have to drive this car, you have to do this thing. It’s always something else. Oh, that that satisfies yesterday. It doesn’t satisfy for today, where Jesus says, I satisfy every day. The world satisfies with self-seeking and pleasure, while Jesus satisfies with love and grace. So let’s see what happens. Verse 38. So Jesus turned and seeing them following, said to them, What do you seek? And they said to him, Rabbi, which is to say, when translated, teacher, where are you staying? So Jesus already knows that he’s being followed, and he asked them this question, What do you seek? Guess what? Jesus already knows what they’re seeking. So why does he ask the question? Why does Jesus say any question to us? But it seems like Jesus is always asking questions. Is it because he doesn’t know? No, he already knows. Because rabbis, and Jesus was a rabbi, in fact, it just mentioned that he was a rabbi, which is a clue for us of what’s going on. Rabbis would use this teaching technique. So they would ask their students a question to guide their students to the truth. Instead of just telling them all the answers, A, B, D, A, A, those are the answers, in case you were wondering. He would ask them questions. Maybe he would actually, another strategy they would use is he would start speaking a chapter of a psalm, like, I don’t know, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And the rabbi, when he when he said the beginning of a psalm, he would expect his students to be like, oh, I know that’s that’s a part of the Bible. Let me go read the rest of that chapter, and then I will understand the fullness of what’s going on, what my rabbi is trying to teach me. So he expects his students to put that kind of work in with questions. So when Jesus is hanging on the cross and he says, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? That’s a clue for us, his students, to go back and read Psalm 22. What is Psalm 22 about? The Messiah being crucified on a cross. Go read it. It’s amazing. It’ll blow your mind. It’s incredible. So rabbis would use this strategy, asking questions. Instead of just telling them, he wants them to wrestle with the truth until they truly understand it from their heart. So he responds, he says, Where are you staying? Where are you staying? They respond, where are you staying? In other words, their answer isn’t, we want to know everything. That wasn’t their answer. Or show us something cool. That wasn’t their answer. Or we would like you to give us money. None of those.

Their response was we want to be near you. And Jesus was like, first class.

A plus, good job. That’s exactly what this is all about. Nothing else. Guys, lesson number one, it’s about being near Jesus. Where are you staying? Oh that’s a good question.

That means you want to be near me. You are the church.

What are you seeking? Jesus is asking you that right now. Blessings. Oh, I want God to bless my marriage, my family, my work, my retirement, my fireworks.

Riches, fame or reputation. You’re probably not gonna find that here in our church.

Power. Some people go to church because they can they feel like they can have power over people. Jesus already knows why you’re here. Did you know? Even though we’re called the church, there’s some of us that are not here with true hearts. Just like in Israel, back in all the time of Israel, all of them were called Israel, but not all of them were really Israel. There was a lot of them that had become simply outsiders to faith. In other words, they didn’t really want to know God. And God says, yeah, they were part of the country, but they’re not really my people. So even back in Israel, that whole time there was the remnant, the real children of Abraham, who were children of faith, and the fakers. The fakers. And every church has fakers. Sometimes it’s the pastor. Every church has fakers. Our job isn’t to determine who the fakers are, our job is to offer Jesus to everybody. And Jesus says he’ll ask the questions. Why are you following me? Jesus already knows. There’s no point in hiding, right, from Jesus. And Jesus has the right to ask and test what we really want in our hearts. He is the holy creator God, and there’s no shadow in him. He is light and there’s no darkness in him at all. So his people, he desires us to be pure. Now he will make us pure if we come to him simply in faith. He’ll cleanse it. So if you were recognizing today, man, I do have other motives of why I’m here, and I’m not here just for Jesus, just to be near him, just to hear his voice. God says it’s okay. Come to me and repent, and you will be cleansed, and it’s all good. Look at the book of Hebrews, chapter four. This verse, I’m sure you’ve heard it, but it’s so incredible. It says, the word of God. Now, I want you to remember, who have we been calling the word of God? Jesus. 50 Jesus points for all of you who answered. Good job. Jesus points for you. The word of God is living. Is Jesus alive? Yeah. Is your Bible also? This is also speaking of the Word of

Hebrews 4 And Exposed Hearts

God here, right? It’s living and powerful, he says. Sharper than any two-edged sword. They didn’t take my Bible away in security. Maybe they should have. That was a good one. I just thought of that right now. Piercing even to the division of soul and spirit. There’s a great study finding out the difference between soul and spirit, right, Doug? Amen. Of joints and morrow. It’s a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. I thought he was talking about the Bible, and then it switches to Jesus because it does that, right? It’s so cool. How the Word of God is always Jesus. Jesus isn’t just concerned with joints, it says, so the first example gives us joints. What do joints do? That’s how we do things with the body, right? The things that move. That’s how our body gets things done, is with joints. If you don’t have joints, you’re just can’t even do that. You’re just dead. But Jesus is concerned with the morrow. What is that? That’s the inner part of the bone that produces blood, and blood always in the Bible represents life. So Jesus is concerned with the inner life, not just how you move and how you get things done. Not just the outward, but the inner. Did I do my hair today? Did I comb my beard? Did I put on clothes? Somewhat important. But Jesus is only concerned with the heart. He says, all things are naked. We don’t like that word naked. It’s weird to say, it’s weird to hear. But what it means is we all must give account to what is going on in our heart. And we don’t have to be ashamed with our God. Because his blood, his love cleanses us from the shame that we would have, right? So look at verse back in John, verse 39. He says, He said to them, Jesus says to these two guys, come and see. And they came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. Now it was about the tenth hour. So this is the invitation Jesus gives them, come and see. Notice he does not say, come and work.

Come

Come And See Then Abide

and tithe.

Come and serve. Those things will naturally happen from a heart that’s transformed, okay? But he says, come and see. We’re not here to figure stuff out first. Just come to me and spend time with me building a relationship always takes time. So what does it say? They remained with him. You know, another word for remain? Abide. What does Jesus say in John chapter 15? Is your job? Abide in me. That’s your job as a Christian. Abide in him. Why? Because every relationship in your entire life needs one thing, and that’s Time. You have to invest time in the relationship. Even relationships that are broken. Maybe you don’t talk to somebody. It’s gonna be hard for that relationship to rebuild, but you can at least spend time praying for them. It still will build that connection in your heart for them. And this is why our groups are so vitally important to me. Because every church wants their people to be growing and loving one another. But not every church will invest time in that goal. That’s why it’s so important to me. I’m begging you, pray. Does God want me to host a group? Does God want me to just go to a group? I want to invest time in people. Because if not, what am I doing with my life? What am I doing with my life? Is my life just my life? Or does my life belong to Jesus? These are the questions we must ask. Why am I here? Why am I here? Now look what it says in verse 40. Now, one of the two who had heard John speak and followed him was Andrew. Okay? Simon Peter’s brother. You guys know Peter, right? Everyone seen the chosen? His first, so it says he first found his own brother, Simon, and said to him, We have found the Messiah, which is translated the Christ. And he brought him to Jesus. Now when Jesus looked

Andrew’s Simple Way To Invite

at him, he said, He doesn’t even he doesn’t even let Peter talk. He just looks at him and he says, You are Simon, son of Jonah. You shall be called Cephas, which is also Peter, which is translated a stone. A stone. So every time Andrew is mentioned in the gospel, every time, guess what he’s doing? He is bringing someone to Jesus. That’s all he does. And guess what? God uses him tremendously. Be like Andrew. You don’t have to answer everyone’s questions. Be like Andrew. Just say, come and see. Hey, you want to come to church? You’re going to hear about Jesus. You want to come meet Jesus? Come to church. Invite people, be like Andrew. Oh, but what if people don’t respond?

What do we do?

If they don’t respond, that doesn’t mean your invitation failed. Okay? When you invite people, you’re not performing a spiritual sales pitch where your words have to land for God to be at work. That’s not what’s going on, okay? God is the one who draws people, the Bible says. You’re the one who give witness, just mean an invitation. I met Jesus here at this church. Will you want to come meet Jesus? Your job is to offer Jesus to the whole world. That’s our job. To give the gospel to everyone in the world. But what if I don’t like them and don’t want them to come to my church? Pray. And still invite them. Because as was it, Abraham Lincoln or someone said the easiest way to defeat your enemy is to make him into your friend. I think it was Abraham Lincoln, right? Oh, we’ll pretend it was Abraham Lincoln. You guys know my favorite commercial in the world. Did you guys get my email this week? Okay, I sent an email out to the church, 4th of July, right? And I hit a secret at the bottom, which was a link to my favorite commercial of all time. And it’s a Diet Mountain Dew commercial where Abraham Lincoln is debating Douglas and and he’s like, Would you like to reply to this? And Abraham Lincoln is like, Would the good people like a reply? Would the good people like a reply? And he rips off his shirt and he he starts wrestling when and and he’s got a big tattoo of an American Eagle. It’s a hilarious commercial. I love it. It’s the best commercial ever made of all time. America.

That’s 4th of July, right there for you.

So what do we do? God is the one opening hearts. That was a rabbit train. I didn’t hardly get back on the tracks after that one. You don’t stop inviting people, but you don’t pressure them. You don’t pressure them, but you keep offering. Hey, I’d still love to see you at church. I’d love to get together with you. I’d love to have dinner with you. Just keep inviting people, keep connecting with people. Invitation is love, my friends. Invitation is love. Pressure is different. We’re never never manipulate. Pressure tries to manufacture a yes. Okay, instead of letting God do the work. If you just invite people and then eventually they say, Yeah, you know what, I’m gonna come, what do you what do you know? You know that God did that work and you get to praise God. If you somehow convince them to come, you might be actually tempted to take the glory for that. So it’s an amazing way God set up for us to participate with Him, but He still gets the glory. It’s beautiful. So a helpful plan is this if you’re gonna invite people to church. A clear invitation. I want I would love you to come to church with me. Or go to that church, or whatever. Come to church with me. Have respect for them, and then leave room for God to do what only God can do. Someone’s inviting you to church. That’s okay. Some things you can say. I’ll give you some practical things. If you ever want to talk about Jesus, I’m here. That’s respectful, right? They get to decide, but you are offering an invitation to them. No pressure, I just care about you. That’s a good thing to say, too. Or Christ’s forgiveness is real. And if you’d like, I’d love to show you what that means. There you go. These are ways that you can communicate this invitation. Um, all right, so you’re not a you’re not uh the mechanic that’s fixing the car, you’re just the messenger saying, I know where the mechanic is.

Right?

All right, so now when Jesus looked at him, he said, You are Simon, son of Jonah, you will be called Cephas, which is translated a stone. Again, Jesus already knows Simon before uh he comes at that. He probably actually already knew him before this. Uh, but Simon gets his name changed to Peter or Cephas. And it’s interesting if you know the languages, Simon means pebble, a tiny pebble, while Cephas or Peter means a big old stone. A big stone. And what does this mean? Okay, well, think about it. Jesus already knows

Peter’s New Name And True Strength

what he’s gonna transform Peter into, the the identity, and he already gives him that identity. He calls him by that name. And I want you to think he does that with you too. He knows what you are, but he knows what he’s gonna make you, and so he calls you by that name also. I don’t know what that name is, but in the book of Revelation, it says that Jesus gives us a name that only him and only he knows. And I think that’s a really beautiful and exciting thing. And when he gives you this name, it’s as good as done. Because when God promises to do something in your life, it’s it’s like a promise is like a structure that’s already formed in God’s kingdom. It’s already gonna happen. He knows all about the past, but he also knows about the power of his resurrection that he’s gonna flood into your life that will completely transform this weak and fleshly man into a bold, spirit-controlled son of God, because that’s what he does. He does that by breaking us of our dependence on our flesh and teaching us to walk in his spirit. But we all have to be broken of our flesh. Peter is gonna be broken because brokenness is the only way to be strong in God’s kingdom. Jesus is flipping the whole world upside down. Back then, the strong people became king and they told you what to do, and if you didn’t do it, they chopped your head off because strength ruled the day. And Jesus says, never again. He flips the whole thing upside down and he says, It’s the humble that will inherit my kingdom, it’s the broken that I will use the most. Ah, prove it to me. Look at 2 Timothy chapter 2, verse 1. Paul teaching his young pastor Timothy, you therefore beat my son, be strong in the grace that is in Jesus Christ. He doesn’t say be strong in going to church all the time and doing all the right things, in trying super hard. He says, be strong in one thing, the grace. Peter thought he was gonna be, he was gonna change the world through his power and zeal. And we find this in Peter. Peter’s all about changing the world, right? He’s always yelling at people, he’s always cutting off ears and taking names. But Jesus is gonna teach him that he is more valuable to God’s kingdom when he’s broken and humbled and willing to suffer, even being crucified upside down, which would be the end of Peter’s life. So look at what Peter writes after this transformation happens. In 1 Peter 5 5, Peter says, Likewise, you younger people, submit to your elders. And all of you, you know what? All of you, be submissive to one another. Be clothed with humility. Because God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. So what do we see? Peter was a wobbly pebble of self-will, and God transformed him into a steady, stable rock. How? Through brokenness, humility, trusting the Spirit of God. The way up is down, right? He’s like, Peter, I got a plan for you. I’m gonna make it happen. I already know, Peter. You’re not a surprise or a disappointment to me, even though you’re gonna frustrate me many times. You’re not a burden to me. I love you. I’ve loved you your whole life. Get ready to truly live by following me, Peter. The following day, Jesus wanted to go to Galilee and he found Philip, and he said, Hey, you follow me too. Now Philip was from Beth Seda, the city of Andrew and Peter. And Philip found Nathanael and said, We have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. And Nathaniel said to him, Can anything good come out of Nazareth?

So this was like

Nathanael Under The Fig Tree

Brownsville. Just kidding.

Is there a reputation? I don’t know about no, just kidding. Where I’m from, I make fun of Pueblo.

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Yeah.

Because we live in Denver, and Collar Springs is even better. But then south of there is this place called Pueblo, and we make fun of it. We’re like, can anything good? And it was really funny because I always had a guy that sat right over here and he was from Pueblo. He was like a state champion wrestler. Rich, if you’re watching hi. Pueblo sucks. And I would always diss Pueblo every time. And he would always be like, oh man, in the middle of church. You can’t do that to Pueblo. Anyway, Nathaniel has a prejudice here against Nazareth. Apparently they were ghetto, they were hood in Nazareth. He says, Can anything good can? And Philip said to him, Come and see. Jesus saw Nathaniel coming toward him and said of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit. Nathanael said to him, How do you know me? And Jesus answered and said to him, Before Philip called you, while you were under the fig tree, I saw you. And Nathaniel answered and said to him, Rabbi, you are the Son of God. You are the King of Israel. What is going on here? It’s like all this special stuff that we’re supposed to know, and it’s like secrets going on. We’re going to find out in just a second, okay? So Jesus answered unto them, Because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these. And he said to him, Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. Ooh, we’ll get into that in just a minute. He starts this out. He tells all these guys, follow me. I just want to mention that word follow in Greek is in the present tense, which doesn’t mean start following Jesus and give up. It means follow today. What do I do tomorrow? Just follow me. What’s the whole point of this Christian life? Follow him. Well, do I need to figure out what I’m doing in 10 years? No. You’re gonna follow him today. That’s your goal. Present tense. Well, what about yesterday? Don’t worry about yesterday. It’s not in the present tense. We’re in the present tense today. What about tomorrow? That’s not the present tense, present tense is today. Focus on following Jesus today. Philip, he’s prejudiced against the losers from Nazareth, apparently. Maybe he has a reason to dislike them. Maybe they beat him in the basketball tournament when he was in high school. I don’t know. But Jesus chose to be from the poorest, lowest community in Israel. That’s he chose to be identified there. Why does he do that? Why did Jesus choose that? Because he chooses the lowest. Because he’s lowly. I know what it’s like. So then he says to Nathaniel, he said, Behold, an Israelite indeed in whom is no deceit. So Jesus basically says, this is a wonderful compliment. There’s nothing tricky or deceptive about you, Nathaniel. Nathanael, you’re not wearing a mask. You’re honest. How does Jesus know this? Well, because Jesus already knows. So some people think that Nathaniel was doing something nefarious under the fig tree. Like he was doing something bad, and Jesus is like, I saw you. But Jesus never does that. He never is addressing people according to shame. I mean, if he’ll address sin if he needs to, but I think there’s something much bigger, and I think we get clues to it here in a minute. Okay, so he says, I saw you under the fig tree. Now, back then, people used to go and meditate under fig trees. In fact, rabbis would send their students with their Bibles to go meditate on a certain scripture under a fig tree. Because it was nice and shady. So that’s where they would go to chill out and relax and meditate on scripture. So when Jesus says, I saw you under the fig tree, I think Nathaniel was meditating on scripture. And I think I know exactly what scripture Nathaniel was meditating upon. Because then Jesus says, You know what, Nathaniel? I told you I saw you. But let me tell you about something that I think you were just reading right now. He says, You shall see heaven open and the Son of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. What does that mean? Is Jesus just making up some riddle that we’re supposed to know what it means? No. Jesus is literally quoting from Genesis chapter 28, which was probably the thing that Nathaniel was meditating upon. So what is this about? Well, in Genesis 28, it says Jacob dreamed a dream, and behold, a ladder was set on the earth, and its top reached to heaven, and there were angels of God ascending and descending upon it. Okay. What is this ladder? Jesus says, Hey Nathaniel, I know you were reading this, and guess what? I’m the ladder. I’m the ladder. Because Jesus changed the words. Instead of saying a ladder, he says, You’re gonna see angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man, which was a messianic term. And so Jesus is saying, Nathaniel, I’m the Messiah. Blow your mind. Here you go. It’s all about me. And he knows everything. And so what is what is this all about? Nathaniel is learning, he’s understanding that Jesus came to be the mediator, the ladder between God and men. And that’s gonna be the greater thing that he’s gonna see. Jesus is like, get ready, I’m gonna blow your mind. This has nothing to do with magically seeing you. I know everything already, but I’m coming to be the mediator between God and men. Jesus already knows. And I want you guys to now think about yourselves. He already knows you. He knows your middle name. He knows your greatest shame. He knows the greatest pain. He knows everything.

There’s no point in hiding anything. What do you want? Why do you want it?

Jesus The Ladder And Final Call

What are your motives?

What are your prejudices? What are you not fully surrendered to Jesus? Am I hiding sin? Am I pretending I’m something that I’m not?

Jesus already knows.

And all these questions must be asked. We have to ask those questions.

And they have to be answered. And that’s scary. It’s painful. But so is childbirth. Like that took a beer. But childbirth is absolutely necessary to see new life.

Guys, we need new life. We need his life in us. And yes, it might be scary, and yes, it might be painful to wrestle with all these questions and to acknowledge to God the truth. I’m gonna read Hebrews chapter 4 again because I think that verse just summarizes completely everything that we need to hear today, okay? For the word of God is living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow. It is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, and there’s no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. Jesus knows all about you, but guess what? Jesus also knows all about himself. He knows that he is gonna be the bridge between God and man. He knows that he is gonna be the mediator. He knows he is the way, the ladder, the way where there was no way before. He’s gonna give his very body to be this new path, this new ladder, this new way. In Genesis, Jacob saw the ladder reaching from earth to heaven, but in John, Jesus says, I’m the ladder, and we don’t climb up it, he climbs down. God’s grace comes down to us. This bridge isn’t your performance, this bridge isn’t your religion, it’s Jesus Himself. He’s the one who already knows everything about you, and He has made a way for you. That’s grace. That’s the gospel. And that is why we follow Him every day every day, like these guys. Because He is the way.

Amen. Amen.