I truly believe with all of my heart that God wants "Greater Things" for your life, and my life.....I am fully convinced! Yet, if you are like me, I have a hard time seeing anything greater at times. I struggle just to see the normal things around me. I know I don't appreciate the normal as I should....because it seems such a struggle at times to keep the normal from shattering in to pieces. So if the normal is difficult, it's no wonder why we have a harder time with these "Greater Things"
Yet, this is exactly what Jesus told Nathaniel, who by the way, had just announced his disbelief on 2 occasions before finally declaring he believed Christ as the Son of God. So you would think everything was perfect. Nathaniel was now complete right? I mean he had believed in Christ as Savior.....but the next statement by Jesus is astounding, really. "You believed because I saw you under the fig tree,I will show you Greater Things than this."
Now, we have to look at the full passage to see what is going on here and why Jesus would say this...This is a crash coarse in sharing your faith with someone...witnessing or evangelism at it's finest...while being way more simple than we make it out to be.
Check this out! Jesus found Philip because that's how it works...God finds us, we don't find Him, because He was never lost. He is not playing this ultimate game of hide and seek with us. Yes, there are verses like "seek me while I may be found" (Isaiah 55:6), "but if you seek the Lord your God..." (Deuteronomy 4:29) and "you will seek me and find me when you seek with your whole heart" (Jeremiah 29:13)....but this does not imply God being lost......He has already located us first. So once Jesus finds Philip, he says, "follow me." Now, Philip was convinced immediately and went to find his buddy Nathaniel. This is where Nathaniel first enters the story. Perry Noble, the pastor at New Spring Community Church calls this action "found people find people." If you have met the Savior, you will find someone to tell. I love that because it is easy to remember.
Nathaniel was a skeptic (and could have been a buzz kill to Philip) and didn't believe anything good could come from Nazareth. Philip could have gotten upset and dismissed Nathaniel as a friend. He could have screamed theology at him, showing Nathaniel the fulfillment of Old Testament passages but instead, he simple tells his buddy, "come and see."
Now, back to why Jesus made the comment to Nathaniel after he declared Jesus as Savior...."You believed because I saw you under the fig tree,I will show you Greater Things than this." There seems to be a huge difference between believing in Christ and following Christ. Don't get me wrong, in order to follow, one must believe first, so belief is huge....but that is my greatest fear for all of our lives. Here is the fear: is that where we stopped? Was belief enough? Because Christ seems to be implying that greater things come from "following Him."
So, our challenge, in the Roots Youth Ministry is this...let us begin to step toward Christ and become followers if we are not already and one of the actions items we are using is inviting our friends to church on January 27th.
Next Week: January 13, we will be discussing what some of these greater things are and it makes the rest of the passage that follows make sense now. I have always read right over this passage and never thought about it. Here it is..."
51 He then added, “Very truly I tell you, you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
Haha! What? - See you Sunday night @ [lit]
