Notes on John 1:43-51

John 1:43-51New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)


⁴³ The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” ⁴⁴ Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. ⁴⁵ Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.” ⁴⁶ Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” ⁴⁷ When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” ⁴⁸ Nathanael asked him, “Where did you get to know me?” Jesus answered, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.” ⁴⁹ Nathanael replied, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” ⁵⁰ Jesus answered, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.” ⁵¹ And he said to him, “Very truly, I tell you,^[a] you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

1. Please note Jesus finds Philip. Jesus is the good shepherd who looks for lost people and when he finds them he invites them to follow him and come back to the family of God.

2. Jesus invites Philip/us to follow him. We have a choice in whether to follow Jesus and belong top the family of God. God forces no one to belong to God though God desires all to do so.

3. Jesus finds Nathanael through Philip. Who does Jesus want to find through you?

4. Philip's witness like ours is to express what we have discovered and experienced in Jesus. After that all we can say to others is "Come and See!" In other words check him out for yourself. That's fairly low key and non-threatening.

5. Jesus reveals sovereignty in saying "I saw you (Nathanael) under the fig tree before Philip called you." Jesus knows us and sees us. We cannot escape God's knowledge of us. People can doubt it, ignore it and disbelieve it but that does not change the truth of it, at least from our Christian perspective.

6. Nathanael lives out the purpose of John's Gospel which is that people might "come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah/Christ, the Son of God and that through believing may have life in his name." (John 20:31)

To quote another gospel character, "I believe, help my unbelief."