In this sermon, the speaker reflects on the different ways people come to know the Lord. He expresses regret about not going into a certain topic, but ultimately decides not to discuss it. The speaker emphasizes the importance of living a Christian life and obeying the Word of God. He highlights the darkness of the world and attributes it to the fallen nature of human hearts. The sermon also mentions John the Baptist as a forerunner of Jesus Christ.

John chapter 1. Now, last week in looking at verses 1 and 2, we saw that John, listen, I did two verses. The last minute I got that second one in there just for conscience sake. But this beautiful description of our Lord by the Holy Spirit through the Apostle John. And the Apostle John is a very, very special brother. So we look at him in the scriptures. And in such an intimate love for the Lord. I mean, all the way through the scriptures, when you see the 12 there and all, he's always trying to get the closest place to him. That's a love he had for the Lord. And he described Jesus to us in verse 1, speaking to us of Jesus' pre-existence, his fact that he is eternal. Spoke to us in verse 1 of the fact that Jesus is divine, that he is the son of God, but also God the son. Spoke to us thirdly in verse 1, that he is a part of the Godhead, the triunity of God, or the, you know, multiple personality in the Godhead there and his place in that. And then in verse 2, that he was in the beginning with God. He didn't, Jesus did not begin to exist when he was born into this world in the city of Bethlehem, but he had existed from before time was even time, eternal, no beginning. And then in verse 3, he moves in his description to describing Jesus as the creator. And he declares that all things, and all is an important word there, all things were made through him and without him nothing was made that was made. He kind of says the same thing twice, just so we get it. If Jesus made all things, then he cannot be a made thing, or he would be the one who made all things except himself that was made. So he is not a created being. He is the author of all creation. And you take that in that famous verse in Colossians chapter 1 and verses 16 and 17, and we're told there by the apostle Paul, for by him that is Jesus, all things, the same words again, were created that were, that are in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things consist, or they, that is that they are held together. We'll get back to that in just a moment. So here is Jesus as the creator. Nothing was made apart from him. Now you go to the very first verse in the Bible, in the beginning, who created the heavens and the earth? God created the heavens and the earth. And here you have all of creation being ascribed to Jesus. So what is it again? It is a testimony to the deity of Jesus Christ. Now, one of the things that's happening is John is writing this gospel, and it's one of the last documents of the New Testament canon. He's writing it toward the end of the century. And so by this time, there are a lot of heresies that are surfacing, most notably the Gnostic heresy, which it came up with all kinds of, you know, weird mystical ideas that were untrue about Jesus and about who he was and what he was and all these different kinds of things. And so John is already, by the Spirit of God, coming against these heresies. And so one of the ideas was that Jesus was created. The Jehovah Witnesses, they have a Gnostic element to their teaching today, and they teach that Jesus was a created being. Well, he can't be a created being and create everything that was created. And so John is laying these things out. And then in verse 4, he describes Jesus as the source of life and the source of light. And in him was life. All life is found in Jesus. Physical life is found in him. All spiritual life is found in him. When it says in him was life, it doesn't mean that he possessed life. It means that he is the source of all physical life. He is the source of all spiritual life. They both come from him. They are both a gift from him to us, to mankind. In him, all physical life consists. Again, chapter 1 of Colossians, verse 17. In him, all things consist. The word consist there means to be held together. And I remember listening as a brand new Christian to Chuck Smith speaking about that whole consist thing. And if you listen to Chuck's tapes and all, he's like a born, you know, he wanted to be a doctor. And so, you know, physics is interesting to him and chemistry and all these things. I try to get away from all of those classes in school. I was unsuccessful, but I mean, as little as I could do and still stay on the college prep, you know, track, I did it. And so I go into these classes and you go into chemistry class and there are these people that are all excited. Mr. Dinsmore up in the front, you know, and he's doing all these things, you know, as if he's like discovered the light bulb or something, you know, and the whole deal of it. And it just get me out of here, get me out of here, out of this, out of this room. So I don't understand all this kind of stuff and how things, but I do know that opposites attract in terms of poles. And I do know that like poles, they push apart from one another. The interesting thing is in one of these basic building blocks of what we're made of and the atoms and all of these kinds of things that you have as a part of that, you have lights held together. And it has been something that the, and then Chuck got me going on this thing. So I began to investigate the thing. I thought, well, is that something that's still messing with today? And the scientists still mess with it today to save their life. They do not know how, when they look at the structure of how God has built things, why the thing doesn't blow up to smithereens and a thousand different directions, every single atom. And the theory among the scientists is that it's held together by atomic glue. So it's a mystery. They don't, they don't know. And we wouldn't really know, except that the Holy spirit reveals it to us in the book of Colossians, that the whole thing is held together by Jesus. He holds all of it together. You and I sit here in this room in one piece together because he holds us together. He's the source of human life. He's the source of all life, but then he's also the source of all spiritual life. John, the same John, when he writes his first epistle in first John chapter five, verses 11 and 12, he writes, and he says, and this is the testimony that God has given us eternal life. And this life is in his son. And he who has the son has life. And he who does not have the son of God does not have life. Very simple for John. This is the apostle of love. And yet the, one of the most beautiful things I love about him is he knew how to love people and he loved people enough to tell them the truth. And the truth is if I have the son, I have spiritual life. If I don't have the son, I don't have spiritual life. That is the fact of the matter. As I've mentioned many times before in the United States, we live in the most hyphenated country in the world. Nobody is just an American. We're some version of American. There's some version of whatever this life is simpler in heaven. Life is simpler for the Holy spirit. There are saved people and there are unsaved people. J Vernon McGee said they're saints and ain'ts. Now that's offensive to the ain'ts, but that's the kind of clarity though that there is with this. All spiritual life comes from him. It's all found in him. And notice he says, and the life was the light of men. What is light? Light is illumination. This is beautiful because the Lord doesn't just give us physical life and spiritual life, and then leave us on our own to figure out what to do with it. He knows that we need illumination from heaven, his will in order to rightly spend this physical life in order to rightly spend this spiritual life. I'm so glad he didn't just save me and say, now you get to be the same crummy guy and, but you'll end up in heaven at the end of it. Now, listen, I would have taken that, but he's done better than that. He comes in and he says, listen, I've got something much greater than even that. I'm going to give you this life. And then I'm going to give you my wisdom and illumination for how to live this life a different way. And it's the greatest life a person can ever live is the Christian life. Simple obedience, to the word of God so that we don't waste our lives. And the light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it. And so when Jesus came into this world, his life and his truth, and he is the light of the world and all, uh, it was something that as it relates to the world for the most part and looking at him, when he came into this world, he came into a dark world. Why is the world dark? Human hearts, human hearts. And you've got this, the old argument between, you know, the, what is the cause and what are the symptoms? What is, what are we born as? And then what is a product of environment? But why is the environment the way that it is? Because of our hearts, man is a fallen creature. The whole world is a testimony to that. So Jesus came into this world and as different as light is to darkness, Jesus was that different from everything in this world, a complete contrast. It's a beautiful, beautiful description of our Lord. But John is headed someplace with this. Then he says in verse six, as he describes John the Baptist, a forerunner of Jesus Christ, he said, there was a man sent from God whose name was John, not John the Baptist. I mean, not John, the apostle, but John the Baptist. Now in the old Testament scriptures, God had declared that before the Messiah came, he would send a forerunner. And a forerunner in those days was simply whenever a King was going to come someplace, a messenger would always be set, sent ahead of the King in order that people might be prepared to receive the King in a way that was worthy of a King. And so here's John the Baptist in his ministry. He comes forward and he is warning the people to repent, even religious people to repent the directions that they're going in. And then as they begin to press him a little bit more about his message and why he's doing the different things and all, he declares the fact that I'm not the Messiah. I am a forerunner. I am giving a message in preparation for the Messiah that's coming behind me. And so the ministry of John the Baptist in this man, John came for a witness, to bear witness of the light that all through him might believe. Now there's a key word in the gospel according to John, believe. I talked about it at the end of the book last week, and we're going to run into this word believe over and over and over again through all of of this passage as we head through it. And so he comes in and he declares that he came as a witness, to bear witness of the light that all through him might believe. That's what he wanted everyone to do was to believe in the Lord Jesus. He was not that light, that is the Messiah, but he was sent to bear witness to that light. And so John was faithful to his ministry to always point people to the Lord. And that was the true light. Now the subject is back on Jesus himself. And that was the true light in contrast to false lights. There have been many false lights in man's history as Jesus spoke in John 14, or I forget where it is in there, but he, John said, Jesus said, I am the true vine. I'm the true vine. A lot of, he's the true vine. True connection to God. And so there was, that was the true light, which gives light to every man who comes into the world. And so Jesus provides light to every single person. Salvation is available, but not everybody is going to accept Jesus. The choice to make in all of that, but they have a light, a light concerning the truth and what they ought to do in choosing him or rejecting him. And he was in the world and the world was made through him. And the world did not know him. Now this is speaking of the Gentiles. When Jesus came into the world, the Gentile world, though he had created the Gentiles, though he had created the world, though he was the source of all of creation, held all of it together. And though they saw all of the miracles that he was doing, they still did not acknowledge him as the creator that he was and as the Messiah that he was. And so there was the rejection of him by the world, but there was also the rejection of Jesus by the Jews. Verse 11, he came to his own and his own did not receive him. And so when Jesus came, of course, and ministered, uh, reaching out to the Jews first and then to the Gentiles of the response of his own people, the Jews, though they knew him. Now this is interesting because you have there in verse 10, you have the Gentiles not knowing him, but they didn't know him. They didn't recognize him for who he was. The rejection of the Jews in verse 11 is, is not based upon that, not based upon the fact that they didn't know him. They did know him. They rejected him for, for other reasons. And so he came to them. And even though he gave them, you know, undeniable evidence that he was the Messiah through all of his miracles and, and all of these things, not only did the Gentiles reject them, but the Jews did also by and large, then notice in verse 12, but as many as received him to them, he gave the right or literally the authority to become children of God to those who believe in his name. So not everybody rejected Jesus. Not everybody rejects him today. There are many who believe. And for those who believe as many as they receive him into their life by believing. So you have people that have received the Lord into their life. How did they do it to those who believe in his name? So there are people who are born again by the Holy spirit in, in believing in him. And then for that particular person, they are given by God, a certain authority and the authority they are given is the authority to become the children of God, to be called the children of God. And that is the only authority by which a person can claim to be a child of God is that I have received Jesus Christ into my life. On what basis by believing in him and believing in him, it means to rely or to trust in where I am relying or trusting in him for the forgiveness of my sins, trusting in his work upon the cross as death upon the cross for the forgiveness of my sins. And only the person that has believed in him and received him into their life has the authority to be called a son of God, a child of God. And it's beautiful. The phrase that's used children of God, it, it reinforces the idea that when we become Christians supremely, what we're called into is a relationship and not just any relationship, a parent child relationship. That's what we need. Now, sometimes you get this whole, uh, thing where, you know, when Phil Donahue was going and doing his whole thing, you know, and he'd get his little panel together and find some snake handler from somewhere to represent the Christian view on his show, and then get some of the most brilliant people in the world to shred them to pieces on national television. One of the things that Phil had a problem with is he always had a problem with Christians being narrow as it relates to salvation of saying that this is the only way that a person can get to heaven. And always the challenge is, you know, by what authority do you say that? Who do you think that you are to say that? And that all these other people are wrong. Where does the authority come from? It comes from the Holy Spirit and John chapter one, verse 12, because it is the fact of heaven. Only one who is born again by the Holy Spirit has the authority given by God to call themself a child of God. It is not arrogance to declare that it is the truth of the word of God. So it comes by receiving him into our life and receiving by believing. And so again, verse 12, but as many as received him to them, he gave the right or the authority to become children of God to those who believe in his name, who were born, now speaks of the spiritual birth, not of blood. Nobody is becomes a child of God by virtue of being born into this world. The old saying is born once, that is just have a physical birth without a spiritual birth in the course of his life. Born once, die twice, die physically and die forever spiritually. Born twice, die once. That's kind of what's going on here. Nobody is born in a safe condition in this world. And so we can't be saved. Who were born, it requires a spiritual birth, more than just blood, not a physical birth, nor of the will of the flesh. Nobody can be born again or gain access to heaven through their own efforts in the flesh. I don't care how many good works a person might do. I don't care what their title is. I don't care how many good things that they've done. It is not the way to get to heaven. Nobody gets to heaven that way, by the works of the flesh, nor of the will of man. Nobody can get anybody else into heaven. Person has to choose to do that for themselves. Otherwise, what would we do? We'd will everyone that we love into the kingdom of God, the whole world to be saved. We want the whole world safe. Then it'd all be done and we'd be out of here. But it's not our decision. We make a decision for ourselves. Everybody else has to make a decision for themselves. And so this spiritual birth isn't of the flesh. It isn't by the will of the flesh. It isn't by the will of other people. But this birth, this spiritual birth, is of God. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us. The word, and the word again refers to Jesus, and the word became flesh. His incarnation, his birth into the world through the Virgin Mary there in Bethlehem. The word became flesh and dwelt among us. And the word dwelt there means literally, it means tabernacle. He's tabernacled with us. So for 33 and a half years, he took on a tent and this body is likened to a tent often in the scriptures. He took on that tent and he tabernacled with us. We got a good close look at God and looking at Jesus, a good close look at him. And so as it says here, the word became flesh and dwelt among us. Now, we are nice American people. So we have cut our teeth on the Christmas story. How that Jesus was born of the Virgin and he was there in the manger and the whole deal and everything like that. And so we just kind of think of it in that terms. And so you talk with people about it and you think, and you talk about that manger and you say, well, it was probably the stone trough and it probably was. And can you imagine, you know, the animals drinking the water out of that. And you ever seen cows drool and God put her right in that. And we, we are in awe of the incarnation almost exclusively from the point of his birth into the world on. But what John is doing here in painting this picture of Jesus and letting us know who he really is and who he has always been. And that this whole thing consists and is held together by him and all spiritual life is found in him. And he is eternal and he is God. Now, all of a sudden, when I get finally to verse 14 and I read that this is the one who was willing to become flesh in order to tabernacle among me in order that I might be saved and seeing his life, it is designed in the Jewish mind to completely undo you. But he would be willing to do that. I don't know what glory he left to come here to provide a salvation for me. One day I will, but I am always in awe in John chapter 17 on the night before the cross, as he's praying for the disciples, he begins to pray for them and his desires that they would be one. And that's a theme through that whole prayer. But then as he prays to the father, his desire that they would see his glory, the glory that he had from the beginning, the astonishing glory that he left to even be willing to come here to say nothing of being willing to die here in our place that we might be saved. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld and the word beheld is the word that we get our theater from. What John is saying was to watch Jesus in the tabernacle, in his body, to watch him in his public ministry was like to be at a theater, only it was real raising people from the dead, healing people, speaking the truth, cleansing the temple, whatever the things might be. He said it was just like a movie. I mean, it was drama all the time. When you understand who he was, we beheld his glory. The glory is of the only begotten of the father. We are born again. And thus we are the children of God, but he is the son of God in a way that no one else is, of course. And so when it calls him the only begotten, it is the altogether unique one of the father, full of grace, full of truth. And there it is right there on the verse, full of grace and full of truth. I've always loved that verse, obviously, but I love those two great things that have only come together in a complete way in him. I want grace. I need grace, but I don't want grace at the expense of truth. That's not good enough for me. I cannot live a lie. I cannot live in darkness. Well, I want truth, but I don't want just truth because of my condition, the fallen condition that I'm born into. So I want grace coupled with the truth. And Jesus comes and he brings both of those things, grace and truth. And the great picture, and it's always the misquoted passage of, there's a few verses that everyone learns, whether they want to know the Bible or not. And when Jesus addresses the sin of that woman caught in the very act of adultery, after he gets done dealing with the religious crowd and they kind of slink off, he says, where are your accusers? They're all gone. Where are those that condemn you? And then Jesus said, neither do I condemn you. And that's the portion of the verse that I always remember. Remember when Jesus said to the woman caught in the very act of adultery, neither do I condemn you? Yes, I remember that. But do you remember the remainder of the verse? Because Jesus said, neither do I condemn you. That's grace. Go and sin no more. That's the truth. But all the way through, you see this wonderful, I don't know the balance is the right word for it. This beautiful combination of the two things that are found in him. And John bore witness of him and cried out saying, this is he of whom I said, he who comes after me is preferred before me for he was before me. Now this is interesting because John the Baptist is again testifying to Jesus. And he describes Jesus in verse 15, those final four words as being before him. And the reason it's interesting is that John the Baptist was born three months prior to Jesus. So how could Jesus be before him when Jesus was born after him? Again, a reference to Jesus's pre-existence. There's eternalness. And of his fullness, we have all received and grace for grace. When we have come into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, what does he lavish us with? Grace. All you have to do is just look around the room and realize, okay, there's going to be a big run on grace even after people get saved. And so that's what he gives, that undeserved favor. That's what we've received from him. We don't get justice from him. We get grace. Now, grace is a funny thing. Grace is a firm thing when it needs to be. I think that most often we think of grace in the sense of forgiveness, almost exclusively in the sense of forgiveness. Our grace, yes, God forgives. The grace is bigger than that. God gives us the grace that we need for forgiveness, but he also gives us grace in the form of power to live a different kind of life. The ability not to sin or to live a life where it is dominated or characterized by sin. And so he gives grace, and it's stronger than sometimes that it's thought about. Always what he deals with this on is the basis, on the basis of grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. And so the law said, obey to live. You better obey or you're a dead man, kind of like that. Under Jesus Christ, it all gets turned around, and now it is live to obey. It's our desire to do it, not out of a fear of what God might do to me if I disobey him, but because I realize how much he has done for me, how good he's been to me, how gracious he's been to me. And the only logical response to that then is a desire to live a life in response to that, that pleases him and brings him pleasure. And so there's the difference between the two covenants. No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten, that is the unique son who is in the bosom of the father, he has declared him. And so to look at Jesus and to see Jesus was to see the father. You remember Philip said to Jesus, show us the father and it'll be sufficient for us. And Jesus said, you know, how long have I been with you? Philip, if you've seen me, you've seen the father. And so Jesus is this beautiful, exact manifestation, revelation of the father. We look and say, well, you know, the father up in heaven, he's always just a little bit steamed. But you know, somebody's got to be like that or the place goes crazy, you know. And Jesus is kind of a softy that goes in and kind of appeases the father. So all right, I know they did that again, but you know, can we give him one more chance? And then the father against his better judgment, you know, doesn't wipe us out. We look at them in two different ways, but here to see Jesus was to see the father and the nature of the father. Now, this is the testimony of John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, who are you? And when John the Baptist is doing baptizing and his preaching around the area of the Jordan river, there hadn't been this much spiritual excitement in Israel for 400 years. Well, actually longer than that. Religion was just, it was dead, was just dead. So John the Baptist is preaching this message. He's baptizing people, people are coming out in droves. They know what he's saying is true. Well, that kind of thing is a threat to the existing kind of religious establishment. And so they send out representatives of the religious community to kind of call John the Baptist on the carpet and say, what in the world are you? Who are you? And what are you doing out here? And John the Baptist evidently understands their question to be a question of whether he's the Messiah or not. Who are you? You better be the Messiah doing stuff out here. John the Baptist confessed and he did not deny, but confessed, I am not the Christ. I am not the Messiah. And they asked him, what then are you Elijah? Because in the book of Malachi, the Lord had declared that before the coming of Messiah, Elijah would come before that great and notable day of the Lord. And Elijah is going to precede Jesus in his second coming. But they ask him now because of the Malachi passage, whether he's Elijah. He said, I am not. Are you the prophet? And the prophet is the one that Moses spoke of coming. And he answered clearly no. And then they said to him, who are you? That we may give an answer to those who sent us. They were sent to get an explanation and we're not leaving until you tell us who you are. What do you say about yourself? John the Baptist said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord. Quoting Isaiah chapter 40, verse 3. I am the forerunner preparing a way for the Messiah who is coming behind me. Now it's interesting again in verse 23, there's no mistakes in any of this. And verse 23, John the Baptist purposely ascribes Isaiah chapter 40, verse 3 to Jesus and that he is making straight the way of the Lord. And when you see Lord there in all capitals, that is always in the Bible, a reference to Yahweh or Jehovah. So you have John the Baptist ascribing deity to Jesus Christ once again. Now those who were sent were from the Pharisees and they asked him saying, why then do you baptize if you're not the Christ nor Elijah, nor the prophet? And John answered and said, answer them saying I baptize with water, but there stands one among you whom you do not know. It is he who coming after me is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I'm not worthy to lose. So Jesus is kind of in the mix of things at this particular point in time, perhaps in the very setting there. And John the Baptist simply describes the fact what, you know, why am I doing things? I'm only baptizing you, baptizing with water. The Messiah who is about to be revealed here, wait till you see, he's going to baptize, you know, with the Holy Spirit. I'm not worthy to even put his sandals on and off. You've got trouble with me, wait till he shows up. And these things were done in Bethabara beyond the Jordan where John was baptizing. And the next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and he declared concerning Jesus, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin, singular, of the world. And so he declares with whatever audience of people that are around John the Baptist, when he sees Jesus, he immediately directs people to Jesus. And that's always a revelation that the Holy Spirit is working a person's life. There's none of this, well, I think I'll draw people to me and then I'll point them to God. John the Baptist wasn't interested in the mediator position that's already taken. So he immediately looks and begins to direct them to Jesus. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Now in the Jewish mind, and that's who's listening to John the Baptist at this time, when they hear Jesus referred to as the Lamb of God, immediately what's produced in their mind, they begin to associate it with sacrifice. They sacrifice lambs all the time in that Old Testament covenant. And so when John the Baptist refers to Jesus as the Lamb of God, they know they're working through it a little bit now. It's just the light's kind of going on here, but there is a recognition in their mind that John sees this man as a sacrifice. And as a sacrifice that is different from the sacrifices of the Old Testament, because this man's sacrifice is going to be given to take away the sin of the world. In the Old Testament, all of these offerings that were given for sin offerings were given for the purpose of covering sin. They could never take away sin in the Old Testament. They covered sin. And so here you have a sacrifice of one, a sacrifice from God that is vastly superior to the Old Covenant, because whatever he's about and whatever is going to happen with him, he's going to take away sin. That's exactly what he's done. And we receive the Lord's forgiveness. My sin is separated from me as far as the east is from the west. I will never come into contact with it again. I like that because he takes it away. He just doesn't cover it. Covering isn't good enough. It takes away the sin of the world. And this is he of whom I said, after me comes a man who is preferred before me, for he was before me. And I did not know him, but that he should be revealed to Israel. Therefore, I came baptizing with water. And John bore witness saying, I saw the spirit descending from heaven like a dove. And he, that is the Holy Spirit, remained upon him. And I did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, upon whom you see the spirit descending and remaining on him, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. John the Baptist said, I didn't know who the Messiah was, except that the Lord told me that there would be this event concerning the Holy Spirit that would identify him. Of course, Jesus and the other gospels, when he was water baptized, the Holy Spirit descended upon him. And that was when John knew for sure that Jesus was the Messiah. And I have seen and testified that this is the son of God, not only that he's the Messiah, but that he is the son of God. And the next day, John stood with two of his disciples and looking at Jesus as he walked, he said, behold, the lamb of God. And the two disciples heard John speak and they followed Jesus. Now, whoever these two disciples are, they are up to this point, disciples of John, John the Baptist. John the Baptist kind of says, listen, don't waste time with me anymore. There's the lamb of God. And so they understand what he's saying and they begin to follow Jesus. And then Jesus turned and seeing them following, said to them, what do you seek? He knew what they were seeking, but he wanted them to say it. And they said to him, rabbi, which is to be, to say, when translated teacher, where are you staying? We know that you're the lamb of God, but where are you staying? Where's a place where we can get to know you better? We can have fellowship with you. We know about you now, but we want to know you. Where are you staying? Where can that happen? And Jesus said to them, come and see, never turned away a sincere seeker. And they came and they saw where he was staying. And they remained with him that day. Now it was about the 10th hour. And one of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew. We don't really know who the other disciple was. There are a lot of people who think it was the apostle John, because all the way through the, the gospel of, of John, whenever John is on the scene, he kind of, um, doesn't identify himself, but he's cryptic enough to make you realize he's probably talking about himself there. And so he may very well have been the other disciple here, but we know for sure that one of the disciples was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. And he first upon coming to know the Lord himself, he found his own brother, Simon. Now, Andrew is an interesting fellow because he is going to be, well, let's go the rest of the way, and then we can just talk about it. So he goes to his own brother, Simon. And he said to him, we have found the Messiah, which is translated the Christ. And he brought him to Jesus. That's the encapsulation of Andrew. Every time you see Andrew in the scriptures, he is bringing people to Jesus. And that's why you have like brother Andrew ministries, where you have evangelism that's occurring on a one-on-one or a small group scale. It's not, it's not, uh, you know, crusade evangelism. And it's a very, very effective kind of evangelism. And it's associated with Andrew because that's what Andrew did. We never see him, you know, he's not on the day of Pentecost standing up and 3,000 people coming to know the Lord. He worked the relationships in his life and the friendships in his life. And he brought people to the Lord. And so that's what he does. He comes to his brother. We found the Messiah. And most people come to know the Lord because a family member does, or a friend does. And that person comes and says, says, listen, everything's changed in my life. And I found the answer. I found the Messiah. I found the reason for living. Let me bring you to him. And then they, they bring their friends or they bring their family to Jesus. And so that's what he did. He brought them to Jesus. It's interesting that as we see Andrew always bringing people to Jesus, we see it here, but he's the guy that remember when the little boy had the five loaves and the two fish. And I don't know what was going on in his heart when there was somehow there's this huge crowd, 5,000 males, adult males. We don't know how many women and children and things, but it's a rather large crowd. Then it becomes apparent in the crowd, there's no lunch. And that the apostles are looking for a source of food for the multitude. And I don't know if he began to like hide that lunch someplace or something. It looked iffy for him having enough, but we're told that it was Andrew that brought the little boy to Jesus. He's the one that, that brought him there. When the Greeks came, they came to Philip and they said, we would see Jesus. And Philip, he's a good kosher Jew. And he looks and says, all right. And so I know we can bring Jews to Jesus, but I don't know about this Gentile thing. I don't know if he's got, I don't know if he'll see Gentiles. So he goes to Andrew and he says, Andrew, does Jesus see Gentiles? Andrew takes him to Jesus. This is the way that he was always bringing people to the Lord. And so he brought them to Jesus. Now, when Jesus looked at him, Peter, he said, you are Simon, the son of Jonah, and you shall be called Cephas, which is translated as stone. He changes Peter's name here. Peter is unstable as water. And Jesus just kind of, you know, prophesies into his life. Listen, I know what you've been all of your life. You've always been Simon. And no doubt when you mentioned Simon, it produced a certain image in people's minds. Instability wasn't one of the things. And the Lord comes in and says, I'm going to rename you. I'm going to rename you Cephas. I'm going to rename you rock. And then I'm going to make you into what I've renamed you. And the following day, Jesus wanted to go to Galilee and he found Philip. And he said to Philip, follow me. You've got a lot of different styles of evangelism going on here in this latter part of the chapter. You've got Andrew bringing Peter to Jesus. So you have that kind of a thing going on. But now here in verse 43, you have Jesus just coming in, finding Philip just in Philip, becoming a disciple of Jesus, quite a part of any human instrument on things. And Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. So they're probably all kind of friends in all of the stomping grounds growing up. And Philip found Nathaniel 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. And so now Philip goes to Nathaniel and he now desires to bring him to Jesus. And Nathaniel said to him, can anything good come out of Nazareth? Now Nazareth was a tough town. It was part Jewish, it was part Gentile. It's a tough town today because it's part Jewish and it's part Arab. Sometimes you drive the bus real fast through there on the tour, depending on the conditions of things. But in those days, it was a place where Roman soldiers retired in town in the area in terms of a reputation. You got it. Don't shout it out. This is for your edification. So passage becomes real to you. And so this was the thinking though, in anybody's mind, as soon as they heard of Nazareth, it's like what in the world even remotely good could come out of it, let alone the Messiah. And so this is what Nathaniel speaks out. Philip said to him, Philip doesn't have any systematic theology at this point or anything. And frankly, Nathaniel has asked him a question he has no answer for. So what do you do when somebody asks you a question that you don't have an answer for? Philip said to him, come and see. He just brought him to Jesus. You ask your questions of him. So you go to the Bible in order to find these answers. And Jesus saw Nathaniel coming toward him. And he said of him, behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile or deceit. And the Septuagint, it translates this as behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no Jacob. That's, you know, that's Jacob before Jabar. His hip is pulled out of joint. And so Jacob, his name before he was renamed by God and made Israel, which that name means ruled by God. His name was Jacob. And the word Jacob means heel catcher. It means supplanter. It means conman. It means it's the kind of person that trips up anyone in front of him by any means so that he can overtake them. I'm sorry if you're named Jacob, but that's the way that it is. And that was his name. And so that's what Jacob was before he was renamed. And so here is Jesus. The first thing he speaks to Nathaniel is behold, an Israelite in whom there is no Jacob. You're an Israelite. You're ruled by God. It's quite a compliment coming from the Lord. And Nathaniel said to him, how do you know me? That cracks me up because it is pure Nathaniel. If Jesus had said that to me, I'd say, oh come on. What else have you noticed about me? I'd put on all this false humility, you know, and everything. There's none of that in Nathaniel. Why? Because he's without Jacob. All that is Jacob. Pretending to be one thing outwardly when you're something entirely different. And when Jesus compliments him in this way, he just looks and it's like, so? Because that's the kind of guy that he was. Now listen, if you're a phony and you're choosing disciples in order to try and perpetuate a false story about yourself, you're never going to call a Nathaniel to be one of those disciples. Nathaniel said, how do you know me? And Jesus answered and said to him before Philip called you when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. I don't know what the distance was, but it seems like it's kind of, it was supernatural what Jesus was able to do from where Jesus was and where Nathaniel was. And he says, he speaks about a situation, he speaks about the situation of Philip meeting with Nathaniel, one that clearly Jesus was not within eyesight, shot of. And so it's supernatural and Nathaniel recognizes it as such. And he declares verse 49, rabbi, you are the son of God. He confesses faith in Jesus upon this miracle alone. You are the king of Israel. And Jesus answered and said to him, because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree. Do you believe you trust in me on the basis of that miracle? You'll see greater things than these. And Jesus 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. And he is saying to Nathaniel, listen, I'm glad you're impressed by what I just did there. Wait till you see what we do the next three and a half years. It's going to be fabulous. You're not going to believe it. And then he speaks to Nathaniel, a passage out of Genesis chapter 28, where you remember Jacob is running away because of this whole con man kind of thing. And he's doing a, just a messed up old deal. And he, and he's running away from his household and, uh, and, and he comes to a place called Bethel. He subsequently names it Bethel, but he's out in the middle of this, just a wilderness. And I mean, Israel, that area, it's a wilderness. And he gets a rock and he puts it down as a pillow. He puts his head on it and he begins to sleep. And as he sleeps, he sees a dream. And there is a ladder from the place that he's sleeping leading up into heaven. And there are angels going up and down the ladder. He wakes up from the dream and he declares that God was in this place. And I didn't know it. And he names the place Bethel the house of God and the vision that he had as he saw that ladder in the angels going up and down was a vision of the activity that was going on between heaven and earth. And that that ladder represented the connection point between heaven and earth. And when Jesus comes on the scene and declares himself to be that ladder, to be the ladder, he is declaring that I am the ladder between heaven and earth. I'm the contact point between heaven and earth. I am the connection between heaven and earth. And you're going to follow me, Nathaniel, for the next three and a half years. And you're going to see all kinds of activity associated with being that ladder and being the connecting point between heaven and earth. And so as we head into the rest of the gospel, according to John, so we'll see that activity, the beautiful, beautiful passage here, all these different ways at the end of this chapter one, where different ways that people come to know the Lord. You know, one of my regrets is that, you know, and this is Oh, I'm not going to go there. No, I'm not going to do it. Well, maybe I'm not going to do it. I mean, it's life changing, but I'm not going to do it. I mean, I don't think I'm going to do it. No, nothing could be worth all of that that I've said, nothing would live up to it. So how am I going to say anything to you now as it relates to what I thought is really very feeble. It wouldn't have been of any help to you at all. It needs some work. It really does. It needs some work. Otherwise I would, I would use it this morning, this evening, but all the different ways that people come to know the Lord here in this passage and how the Lord uses all of these disciples of glorious revelation, beginning kind of point and looking at Jesus Christ, just the awesomeness of who he is. Then all those beginning activities of people and bringing others to come to know the Lord, like Andrew, when he comes to know the Lord, it's just like, this is too good to keep a secret. Everyone that I know. And so he did.