Exploring Psalm 69

Hosanna! This Hebrew word means, "Save me!" In another place it is the call of a large group of people to Christ. We look to Him for God's salvation, and we are right to do so, even in the deepest distress. In Psalm 69, it is the call of a single psalmist, perhaps David, crying out to God. The words that he uses here remind us of a later prophet, Jonah. (Read Jonah 2) Jonah remembers his cries from the overwhelming waters after he was thrown into the deep. The fish that God appointed was a help to him, an agent of the Lord's rescue, and the beginning of something new for Jonah. Here in Psalm 69, the psalmist is looking for deliverance from God in the most desperate situation. Anyone who lives a full life in this age of challenge and opportunity will face something that is at least in some small way like this; a desperate moment, or even a desperate season of life that does not seem to end. The psalmist is sinking into a pit like Jeremiah, another later prophet; no clean water to drink, and eyes fool of tears, eyes that are hurting for the appearance of God and for God's deliverance.

The trouble that the psalmist faces is not impersonal but massively personal. His enemies are more than the hairs on his head, and they hate him without a cause. This phrase is quoted in John 15:25 and applied to Jesus Christ: "They hated me without a cause." The psalmist faces mighty lying foes who want to see him dead, and he has to pay a debt that he did not incur. He says, "What I did not steal must I now restore?" This is what God has done for us in Christ. We have incurred a great debt to God because of our sins, and Christ has paid that debt through His blood.

The Lord knows what is in our hearts and our lives; He is aware of our foolishness and our sin. He knew David, and He knows us. He also knew His Son Jesus, but in Him there was no foolishness or sin. His Father spoke from heaven about how well-pleased He was with His Son. Since that is the case, how would Christ have been able to sings verses 5 and 6 of this psalm? He would have been able to meditate on the greatness of the knowledge of His Father, who surely would have known of any evil in His Son, of which there was none. He also could have considered His own willingness to take upon Himself the burden of our sin on the cross, and how His Father would see all of our sin on Him on that day when God would send His wrath upon His beloved Son for our sake. He pleads for us, knowing that all of our covenant hopes are in Him as the servant of the Lord on our behalf. It is absolutely critical that He not fail in the great trial before Him, or we will be lost.

Why has this one Servant of God become the enemy of so many? He sings to God about this. He says that it is for God's sake that He is hated. Those who hate the Lord have found a ready target for their mockery in this chosen Servant. He has a zeal for the Lord's house in both the Old Covenant expressions of the tabernacle, and later the temple (though beyond the days of David), but then especially the coming church comprised of Jews and Gentiles, and most especially the resurrection kingdom of God united perfectly with the resurrected Son of God, Jesus Christ. Zeal for this house consumes this suffering Servant, and drunkards have made it their joke. Even His brothers act like they don't know Him. The more He is consecrated to God, the more He is hated by men.

This Servant of the Lord turns toward God at this time, and He looks for His deliverance at an acceptable time. He pleads the steadfast covenant love of God for Him, and renews His plea for help, for the presence of God, and for God's deliverance. Death is often called a pit in the Scriptures. If God's Servant is lost in death forever, there would be no hope for us. It of great importance to us that His suffering pleas be heard at just the right time.

We know from other Old Testament passages that this Servant of the Lord must actually die. It cannot be that like Isaac, He comes off of the place of sacrifice, and a ram in the thicket takes His place. There is no other Lamb that will do. Therefore His deliverance must come beyond death. Just as Abraham raised His hand, ready to sacrifice His only Son, we must reason with Him that God is able to raise the dead; that while the servant of the Lord will taste death, God will not leave His Holy One in the grave forever. This deliverance will be past the point of death. In fact, details about the death of Jesus we now know to have been hidden in this psalm. "They gave me sour wine to drink." There were no comforters for Him, and no pity.

We know from the story of Acts 2 that there were those who had been somehow responsible for the sufferings of the Messiah; people who later found mercy through faith in Christ. The way to mercy can only come through a true faith and repentance. For those who will not call upon the Name of the Lord, those who persist in hating God and His anointed Servant, there is no other expectation than the curses of the covenant falling upon them. It is still today a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God; to be among those who have rejected the One who took our pain, to turn away from Him, only to face eternal indignation and punishment in a place from which there can be no acquittal.

There is a better way. There is one who faced the pain and affliction that we deserve. He cried out to His Father, and He was heard. He asked for salvation, not because He had sin. What was it for this servant to be saved? He tells us plainly in verse 29: "Let Your salvation, O God, set me on high!" We know that He suffered death for us. There was no other way. Yet He was set on high. He has risen from the dead, and even ascended into heaven, where He reigns and is known by all who fear and love the Lord. Even now, we worship God through Him, and He is alive on high. Our worship, though feeble to us, is perfected through Him, and has become perfectly acceptable to the Father. We praise God in song through Jesus Christ. We offer up thanksgiving through Him. All true worship is acceptable only through this Mediator.

This is a tremendous help to those who suffer now. We who have humbled ourselves, recognizing our desperate condition and finding our consolation only in the perfections and mercies of our Redeemer, we see something. Verse 32 says, "the humble see it." What do we see? We see Jesus, who cried out to the Father; by faith we see Him now at the right of the Majestic One in glory. We see that He has been set on high, and we know that our destiny is in Him. Our hearts revive even now, knowing that God hears the cries of the afflicted, and that He brings heavenly glory to His children. Though evil men and angels might despise us, though we are the taunting song of some, "the LORD hears the needy and does not despise his own people who are prisoners."

If this at all seems questionable today to you, Your courage is said to come from looking to the One who cried out and was heard, and who now has been set on high, far above every other name that is named in heaven or on earth. If You are assaulted by doubts, remember that if You are truly in Him who died for Your sins and was raised again for Your justification, then all Your questions will be entirely cast away one day. It is the Lord's settled intention that heaven and earth will praise him, the seas and everything that moves in them. God will save His Zion forever, and build up the cities of the new resurrection world, and people shall dwell there and possess it; the offspring of His servants shall inherit it, and those who love His name shall dwell in it."

Why does Jesus care about what people are doing in the temple?

"My Father's House"

(John 2:13-22, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, January 18, 2009)

John 2:13-22 ¹³ The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ¹⁴ In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. ¹⁵ And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. ¹⁶ And he told those who sold the pigeons, "Take these things away; do not make my Father's house a house of trade." ¹⁷ His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for your house will consume me." ¹⁸ So the Jews said to him, "What sign do you show us for doing these things?" ¹⁹ Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." ²⁰ The Jews then said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?" ²¹ But he was speaking about the temple of his body. ²² When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

Has the Father's house become a house of trade? (13-16)

The most public portion of Jesus' ministry as presented in John's gospel began with a great confrontation in the temple in Jerusalem just before a Passover celebration. It ended with a similar confrontation after His triumphal entry into Jerusalem at a different Passover. Shortly after that final confrontation, Jesus would do what He came to do. He would die as the Passover Lamb, the Substitute for sinners who would turn away the wrath of God and redeem us. Jesus fulfilled everything that the Old Passover was all about, and in accomplishing this He brought an end to an Old way of tabernacle and temple worship governed by the Law of Moses. That is not at all to suggest that Jesus did not care about that old way. We see in these verses that our Lord was passionate about the temple and the Law of God.

When God came to save us, He came with a whip. The actual word used here can also be translated scourge, and it is very close to the word used to describe what happened to Jesus before He was crucified. It is amazing to consider that the whipping deserved by the Old Testament abusers of the Lord's temple area, was the very scourging that the Son of God took in our place before His death. Here Jesus had the whip in His hands, and He was clearing away from the temple courts those who were operating a sort of religious concession stand on the temple grounds, selling animals needed for sacrifice and providing a currency translation service for those who would need to have the authorized coins for their worship. He was not pleased that the guardians of worship had taken it upon themselves to change God's plans for the use of His space. Soon others would have the scourge in their hands and they would turn it against the holy Son of God. That would be later. For now, Jesus cleared the temple.

The events in John's gospel that we have seen up to now have been somewhat private, but this was about as public as could be. Jesus was not presenting Himself to Jerusalem as someone weak. He was deliberately going into a place that He claimed to be His Father's house. He came with outrage over the things that His servants had done there. He was in charge, and He implicitly insisted on His way in that place. As unlikely as these events may have seemed on a human level, could anyone have stopped Him? He was passionate, powerful, and in control.

Zeal for the Father's house consumed Him. (17)

When His disciples considered what took place that day, they would remember a quote from Psalm 69, "Zeal for your house will consume me." This psalm is worthy of our close examination. It is one of the most frequently quoted psalms in the New Testament. It contains certain verses that were clearly fulfilled by Christ. "They hated me without a cause," "The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me," and especially "They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink." (Read Psalm 69.)

The larger story of the psalm is revealing. It begins with a call for help reminiscent of the call of the prophet Jonah after being thrown into the waters, "Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me." It speaks of the attacks of the enemies of God against the psalmist, yet it also refers to God's actions against him, "They persecute him whom You have struck down, and they recount the pain of those You have wounded." God is the "You" here that the Psalmist sings to. God has somehow struck His servant. The end of the psalm speaks of the greatest vindication of the psalmist in a renewed Zion, where all of the residents love God's Name. This psalm makes most sense when we notice this one detail: There are times when the psalmist refers to himself as a singular righteous man facing trouble, and there are other places where there is a larger group of righteous ones who are facing great trial.

In the middle of the psalm is the verse that is quoted in John 2: "Zeal for your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me." The psalmist is hated by others because of his zeal for the Lord's house. People make fun of him. Drunkards make up songs to laugh at him. They give him poison for food, and they mock him in his thirst during his time of deepest distress, when he has been struck down somehow by the God whom he loves. Through his distress, he still calls out to God for salvation, a salvation that is defined by this plea: "Set me on high!" Again, we remember that there is a larger group of those who will be associated with this suffering one who has zeal for the Lord's house. The psalm ends with them being encouraged because God has heard the cries of the one righteous servant, a fact which is evident to his followers because he was set on high. "When the humble see it, they will be glad," and their hearts will be revived in the troubles that they face. They will know for certain, because of what has happened to this one righteous man, that "the Lord hears the needy."

The destiny of the man who was struck down by God and who is set on high is now clear today as the central events of the work of salvation have come to pass. The singular righteous servant who has zeal for the Lord's temple and who identifies with a larger group of sinners can be none other than Jesus Christ. Of course He was struck down by God through His death on the cross. He was set on high in His subsequent resurrection and ascension. These facts were seen by many and have become the source of great encouragement to the church. We know that resurrection is real. We know that whatever trouble we face now is temporary. We will be with Jesus Christ in a new temple land, spoken of glowingly in the last three verses of the psalm:

34 Let heaven and earth praise him, the seas and everything that moves in them. 35 For God will save Zion and build up the cities of Judah, and people shall dwell there and possess it; 36 the offspring of his servants shall inherit it, and those who love his name shall dwell in it.

He will raise a new house for God. (18-22)

One reason that the Lord was so incensed about the abuse of the temple is that He was the fullness of everything that a perfectly righteous Old Testament worshiper of God should have been. For Him to see the abuse of the temple and to shrug it off as somehow OK was simply impossible for Him and it would have been wrong. There was another reason that He cared about the temple so much. He knew what the temple was all about. It was not just a special place made by men for the purposes of men. The temple was a picture of the coming kingdom of God, when the union of Messiah and His people in the land of resurrection would be a holy temple of God forever. To mar that picture with the commercial activities of men was simply inexcusable. It was as if Moses, having seen the burning bush in the wilderness, instead of taking off his shoes on that holy ground as God commanded, decided to sell tickets to passing nomads because of the amazing spectacle of a fiery bush that will not burn. We need to fear God.

While people were unable to effectively stop the Son of God that day, they did question Him. They demanded that He show some sort of sign to justify His bold actions. He was the one who made the subtle connection between the Old Testament temple and His own resurrection body when He said, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." They did not understand what He was saying. He knew their confusion and their hostility, but He did not explain the meaning of what He said, that He was talking about His body, a fact that His disciples would only understand after the resurrection. Notice that He said that He would raise up His own body. He would say this in another way later in the gospel in John 10:18 when He spoke about how He would give His life for us, "No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father." Jesus understood at the very beginning of His ministry that in His resurrection, He would be taking His life up again, and that this resurrection would be a true rebuilding of the temple. In Him we live. Particularly in heaven we will know this and feel this, that we are in the temple of God, and that the resurrected Jesus, united to His Father and to His beloved church is the temple of the Holy Spirit. This is why John writes about the heavenly Jerusalem in Revelation 21:22, "I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb." This is why He tells people to abide in Him.

Jesus knew and loved the Old Testament temple, not only because it was the place of the worship of God in His day, but also because it stood for the place of His close communion with His people forever in heaven. That was so important to Him that zeal for His Father's house consumed Him. He was willing to suffer and die so that the glory of His Father would be satisfied in the saving of lost sinners. He knew He was coming to die for us. He knew He would rise again. He even knew that His resurrection would come on the third day after His death. He knew that this was a fulfillment of the Scriptures. He understood the cries of the prophet Jonah for help from God, and that the timing of what He called in another place "the sign of Jonah" had something to do with Him. He understood from Psalm 69 that if the suffering people of God in the gospel age were to have hope of vindication, they would need to be able to consider that their Lord had cried for help, and that His cries were answered with resurrection. Do you need encouragement in your troubles? Look to this Jesus. He carried your sorrows on the cross. He cried out and He was set on high forever. His body is a resurrection temple. There is room there for you. Let heaven and earth praise him, the seas and everything that moves in them. For God will save His heavenly Zion and build up our heavenly cities, and we shall dwell there and possess those places; and His servants, the people of His holy Servant Jesus, shall inherit it, for we are joint-heirs with Christ, and those who love His name shall dwell in that place.

Questions for meditation and discussion:

1. How would people have perhaps justified the commercial activity in the temple?

2. What do we learn about Christ from these actions in light of the Old Testament citation?

3. What do you make of Jesus words about destroying and raising the temple?

4. Why did Jesus react so strongly against those selling things in the temple?

What's so great about a wedding?

"A Wedding in Galilee"

(John 2:1-12, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, January 11, 2009)

John 2:1-12 On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. ² Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. ³ When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, "They have no wine." ⁴ And Jesus said to her, "Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come." ⁵ His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you." ⁶ Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. ⁷ Jesus said to the servants, "Fill the jars with water." And they filled them up to the brim. ⁸ And he said to them, "Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast." So they took it. ⁹ When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom ¹⁰ and said to him, "Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now." ¹¹ This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him. ¹² After this he went down to Capernaum, with his mother and his brothers and his disciples, and they stayed there for a few days.

The setting: A wedding… (1-2)

The covenantal union between a man and a woman is a very special occasion. Since Genesis 2 when God created Eve as the one who would be the intimate life-long partner of Adam, the coming together of two individuals in marriage has been full of wonder. The Lord speaks of marriage at both the beginning and the end of the Bible. While Jesus was not married during His earthly days, it is the destiny of the church together with the Son of God to be the fulfillment of everything that marriage was ever intended by God to be. The glorified church that comes down from heaven, the New Jerusalem, is said to be prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. There is a sense in which every wedding throughout the centuries of life in this world is to be a display of that perfect union of Jesus Christ as our Husband and the church as His bride.

For this reason, it seems especially fitting that the first miracle recorded in John's gospel is at a wedding. We are told that this wedding took place on the third day after our Lord's meeting with some of His disciples recorded in the previous verses. We are also told about the location, although after so many centuries have passed it is difficult to be sure of exactly where the small town of Cana was located in Galilee. The region of Galilee was in the very northern part of what was Israel. Nazareth was also in Galilee, as was Capernaum and several other places that were around the Sea of Galilee at the north end of the Jordan River. The invited guests at this wedding included Mary, the mother of Jesus, the Lord Himself, and the few disciples that He had with Him at this point.

The problem: They have no wine. (3-5)

Wedding celebrations in that culture often went on for several days. Food and wine were a part of the normal hospitality that one extended to guests who were witnesses of this joining together of a man and a woman. There was a public, almost community-wide feeling to these events. When the wine ran out, something of the celebration was over. Throughout the Old Testament, passages that referred to a coming age of great blessing often spoke of bountiful quantities, not as an encouragement of drunkenness, which is never a good thing. Good wine, just like good food, is everywhere presented as a gift of God, though like good food it can be abused, and should be consumed with modesty. Good wine and good food are especially associated with times of healthy celebration, and there is no doubt that a wedding should be that kind of occasion.

Here it is Mary who says to Jesus, "They have no wine." We know from the rest of the passage that they previously had wine, but that now all the wine is gone. The response of Jesus to this information seems to us to be rude. This is probably because we do not understand the cultural standards in first century Galilee. There is no indication that Mary took any offense at the way her Son spoke to her. Beyond the use of the word "woman," which does not work well in our culture, our Lord is indicating something else that does sound like a correction. "What does their running out of wine have to do with me? My hour has not yet come." However we understand these words, we see that His mother knows her Son well enough to know that He actually is going to address this issue, a fact that does not at all come across from the specific words used. We communicate our intentions with our facial expressions, body language, and tone of voice. Somehow Mary knows, perhaps through a simple smile that says it all, that a very good provision is coming. Therefore she says to the servants, "Do whatever He tells you."

This turns out to be another one of these mysterious statements recorded in John's gospel that has meaning beyond the specific situation where it is used. "Do whatever He tells you." This is good advice for all of us. In the meantime, in the actual situation in the wedding at Cana, despite whatever non-verbal clues or prior conversation allowed Mary to realize that Jesus was about to do something wonderful, His response to His mother does teach us some important things. Notice that He does not refer us to His mother for anything. He simply never tells us that if we need help in some way that Mary is the answer for us. She, on the other hand, as every true worshipper of God should always do, refers everyone to Jesus and points us in the direction of both hearing and obeying Him. He never refers us to her. She always refers us to Him. Also, it is a fact that in some way, His time has not yet come. While the time has come for a miraculous sign, it has not come for the fullness of the best wine at the best of all marriage feasts. It is time for a taste, but it is not yet the time for the wedding supper of the Lamb of God.

That day will come, and it seems very likely that the best wine in bountiful supply is a very appropriate sign of the fullness of resurrection blessings. Several Old Testament prophetic books end with descriptions of the new heavens and the new earth that are coming with the return of Christ. Amos is one such book. Almost every word in the book is about the judgment of God against Israel, but the last seven verses speak of a new time coming. In those verses we hear these words about wine: "Behold, the days are coming," declares the LORD, "when the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed; the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it. I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit." There is a sense of the inauguration of the Resurrection era in the ministry of Jesus. In fact the last verses of Amos are referred to in Acts to speak of New Covenant blessings. Therefore it is very appropriate that, at a simple wedding feast in the small village of Cana in Galilee, our Lord gave the guests a taste of resurrection wine.

The miracle: A sign… (6-12)

This is a good enough reason for us to celebrate, but we are not finished. The way that the miracle actually took place has more meaning. Jesus used six stone water jars that were filled to the brim with well over 100 gallons of water in order to give these Jewish guests resurrection wine. He did not have to do it that way. We should not miss the point here. All that water was to be used for purification rituals that had become part of good religious Jewish life, rituals that were not commanded in the Bible, but were treated by many as if they were God's Law. The way that people and everything around them became ceremonially clean was through all these washings with water. The truth is that this kind of water could actually do nothing to take away the true stain of sin. It would be through the blood of Christ that people would be cleansed, and the application of that blood would come by the work of the Holy Spirit upon the consciences of believers. That would be the real way to be clean and to gain an invitation into the true wedding feast as the bride of the Lamb of God. He gave Himself for us to be our glorious Husband.

Here in Cana of Galilee, the ceremonies of men had to give way to the abundance of the grace and power of God. Jars full of water cannot bring about a wedding celebration. For that purpose they could bring nothing but shame to the hosts at this wedding. But then they were suddenly filled with the best wine, with the wine of the long expected age of resurrection. Do you want to taste that wine, the wine of the resurrection? This is the true wine from heaven that is better than the kind of wine that men fill themselves with now just to forget their misery. Isn't that why we do so many of the things that we do now? Why do we gorge ourselves with food when we are already full? Why do people keep on drinking when they have already had too much? Why do we go on to the next form of escapist entertainment when it can do nothing for us? We are trying to forget our misery. We are looking for something that would take the vague smell of a world of death out of our nostrils. What we really want is the resurrection, and the best way to taste that is to receive the Holy Spirit. That is why the apostle Paul writes to the Ephesians, "Do not be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Holy Spirit." Every good property of water and wine is pointing forward to the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ and the glorious rejoicing of the Spirit-filled people of God in the age to come.

This first sign recorded by John in this gospel manifested the glory of Jesus Christ. The answer for you is not in any wine that men can make. The answer for you is not in the sweet and humble mother of Jesus Christ. The answer is certainly not in man-made rules and ceremonies that are designed to make you forget your misery or teach you that you are purer than everyone else. The answer is in the Son of God who showed something of His glory when He produced such good wine at that simple wedding, that the person in charge of the festivities was shocked. This Jesus is your Provider. He is your Protector. He is Your Husband. He has invited you to His resurrection wedding, not to be just a guest, but to be a part of His glorious bride, without spot, or blemish, or any such thing.

Those who begin to love the truth about Christ and the resurrection can hardly keep themselves from telling people about the wedding they have been invited to. Those who do not know such things, even though they be ever so religious, deep inside they wonder what all the fuss is about. They certainly would never talk to anyone about Jesus, unless the other person absolutely insisted. But we have not only been invited to attend that great wedding. We are to be the bride. And the Man who is marrying us gave Himself for us. He has risen and lives forever, and we speak.

Questions for meditation and discussion:

1. What can we understand about first century wedding customs in Galilee from this passage?

2. What do you make of the interchange between Jesus and Mary?

3. What is the meaning of this first sign of Jesus in John's gospel?

4. Why is a wedding such a wonderful time to celebrate?

Is heaven real?

"What Are You Seeking?"

(John 1:35-51, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, January 4, 2009)

John 1:35-51 ³⁵ The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, ³⁶ and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God!" ³⁷ The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. ³⁸ Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, "What are you seeking?" And they said to him, "Rabbi" (which means Teacher), "where are you staying?" ³⁹ He said to them, "Come and you will see." So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. ⁴⁰ One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. ⁴¹ He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, "We have found the Messiah" (which means Christ). ⁴² He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, "So you are Simon the son of John? You shall be called Cephas" (which means Peter). 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 of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." ⁴⁶ Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see." ⁴⁷ Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!" ⁴⁸ Nathanael said to him, "How do you know me?" Jesus answered him, "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you." ⁴⁹ Nathanael answered him, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!" ⁵⁰ Jesus answered him, "Because I said to you, 'I saw you under the fig tree,' do you believe? You will see greater things than these." ⁵¹ And he said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man."

Behold, the Lamb of God! (35-37)

The Lamb of God! For the second time in this first chapter of John's gospel, Jesus is called the Lamb of God. This is an expression that we could never make sense of today without understanding some of the Bible and ancient religion in general. These words, the Lamb of God, are at the center of the whole point of the Scriptures and the Christian religion. I grew up hearing these words every Sunday as part of a worship liturgy, but I did not understand what they meant. Maybe you can relate to that.

We don't live in a world where people kill animals and offer them up to God in order to take away God's anger. From the opening chapters of the Bible, this idea is very important. God instituted it by giving Adam and Eve animal skins in place of fig leaves, which was one of the early hints that blood would have to be shed in order for the world to regain the sweetness that once had filled the air. That story of animal sacrifice was something that all kinds of people seemed to know in some way. That's why so many old religions had something like this. The common ideas in all of these systems were these: 1. There is a realm of the gods beyond our view. 2. The powers there are personal and can be angered. 3. Being at peace with them requires the shedding of blood. These points are correct.

The biblical story of the Lamb of God moved way beyond the first few hints of Genesis when detailed laws of sacrifice were instituted in the days of Moses. It is there, in Exodus and Leviticus, the second and third books of the Bible, that we begin to learn something about the "lamb" part of this expression, "the Lamb of God." When God rescued His people out of slavery in Egypt, the fact that the firstborn sons of the Egyptians died and the Israelites did not die, but lived, had everything to do with the blood of the lamb, and that was according to the command of God. Every year from that point forward, lambs were to be slaughtered and eaten at every Jewish table in the feast that began the biblical Old Testament year, the Passover. There was a point to all this, a point about substitution, about death, and about life. Lambs were also killed as part of a daily sacrifice to God, and for special peace offerings, sin offerings, and other rituals that comprised Old Testament worship.

Though the hints in even the first book of the Bible included things about a lamb that would somehow be a human being, it was in the later writing of the prophet Isaiah that we heard of a man who would come, a man who would be led like a lamb to the slaughter in a death that would somehow come by God's hand, a death of a Substitute for us, a man who would somehow be carrying our sins in His death. As plain as that passage in Isaiah 53 seems to us who live after the death of Jesus, it was not something that people were able to see clearly before the cross. That is why it is so significant when this man, John the Baptist, the forerunner, now for a second time, turns to Jesus of Nazareth and calls Him the Lamb of God. It is at this point that two of John's disciples begin to follow Jesus.

Come, and you will see. (38-39)

When I say that Andrew and his companion followed Jesus, I mean that physically. The question that He asks these two men who are following Him are the first words of Jesus recorded in this gospel: "What are you seeking?" That is a very good question. Imagine His eyes searching your heart. What are you seeking? What were these two men looking for? What is anyone looking for who makes a decision to be a follower of Jesus Christ? Do they want peace with people? Do they want things to work out well in their lives? Do they want to be a part of something that will appear to be successful to their families, friends, and neighbors? If so, they are following the wrong man. But if they want the truth, if they want the Lamb of God, if they want peace with God, if they want their sins forgiven, if they want heaven, and if they are willing to wait for these gifts, then they should follow Jesus, the Lamb of God.

All of this would have made for a very interesting discussion on the meaning of life, but that is not at all what happened there that day. When he asked them "What are you seeking," they replied with another question: "Where are you staying?" This seems odd, but He takes it for what it is, a beginning, and He speaks another loaded phrase that could be taken for nothing: "Come and you will see." This is what they actually do of course, but it is precisely the advice I would like to give to anyone who had even the slightest interest in Christ. Putting it in a different way, in the words of Psalm 34, "Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!" But then they have not been talking about food or drink, but residence. Residence is a fascinating issue. We know that He spent some time in a town called Capernaum around this point, but He was raised in Nazareth, and was born in Bethlehem. But He really came from another place in a way that Adam, Noah, Moses, and Isaiah could never quite claim. Jesus came from heaven. He came from that place where God and His angels live. When He says, "Come, and you will see," if we will follow Him, that is where He will finally lead us, until all of heaven comes down upon this earth and renews this world.

Andrew and Simon, Philip and Nathanael (40-46)

For now these men spent an afternoon with Him somewhere. We read of Andrew leading His brother Simon (later Peter), and then Philip leading Nathanael to Jesus. What shocks us is the certainty of their words. They call Jesus the Messiah, the One of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Again we are thinking of place. Philip has the right person, but He speaks of Nazareth and Joseph, when we might more properly speak of a better Father than Joseph and a better place than Nazareth. We are also surprised by the frank words of Nathanael, "Can anything good come from Nazareth?" Suddenly Philip is saying the words he heard not too many hours before: "Come and see." And so he does, and what does he find?

An Israelite and the King of Israel (47-49)

Again we are surprised by the enthusiasm of His early reaction to the Messiah. Our Lord demonstrates His knowledge of Nathanael, pointing to something of the man's character or at least his personality, and also a small fact about his earlier encounter with Philip. Nathanael is deeply impressed by this. Now he is the one who has moved beyond Joseph, "You are the Son of God." He may not entirely understand what he is saying. Jesus is the Son of God, but this title was also a way of referring to the expected Messianic King of Israel.

You will see heaven opened. (50-51)

Our Lord receives this as Nathanael's statement of faith. He has told this straight-talking Israelite that he saw him under the fig tree before Philip called him. Just as when Jesus says the words "follow me" in other situations, and people drop their nets and comply, it is now as if Nathanael is overwhelmingly carried along by the man from heaven who is truly the Son of God. Yet Nathanael has actually seen almost nothing yet. There is so much ahead of them all. Jesus assures him that he will see greater things.

He could have said, "You will see tremendous miracles. The blind will receive sight. The dead will be raised. Thousands will be fed from next to nothing in provisions." He could have told him so many more Nathanael-specific things, things that no one would have had any way of knowing. He could have told him what would happen in his (Nathanael's) future life and ministry, where he would go, what he would do, how he would live and die. Instead He speaks to Him of that better place than Nazareth, of heaven and the Messiah. He speaks from one of the many hidden passages about Christ in the Old Testament. He gives a one sentence sermon when He says these words: "You will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man."

In the first book of the Bible, the man Jacob, who God named Israel, had a dream the night before he would meet his wife. He was all alone on his journey at this critical juncture in his life. We read about it in Genesis 28:11-12. "He came to a certain place and stayed there that night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it!" Jesus is giving a one sentence sermon on these two verses.

This is what He is saying to Nathanael: "I am Jacob's ladder." Heaven is real. Angels are real. There is a connection between the realm of heaven, the land of God and His angels, and the realm of earth, the land of humanity. I am the connection. He is saying, "You will see this." When you see heaven opened, and you see the inhabitants from the land of God and His angels coming upon the earth through Jesus Christ, then you will have really seen something!" But then, what are you seeking? Do you want to see heaven opened? Come and see!

Questions for meditation and discussion:

1. Why might John have repeated his earlier words about Jesus being the Lamb of God?

2. What are some of the unusual features of these interactions between Jesus and some of His disciples?

3. Why does Nathanael end up deciding that Jesus is such an impressive person?

4. How will Jesus fulfill the secret Messianic expectations of Genesis 28:11-12?