Jesus wants people to follow Him in faith and truth. This is a Bible study teaching for “Come and See” on John 1:40-51 from the “Explore the Bible” series from Lifeway.
In this lesson, we are continuing in John chapter 1 and the beginning of Jesus’s ministry. We will be going through verses 40-51. The title of the lesson is “Come and See” and is the account of the when Jesus called his disciples.
John 1 and Creation
We’re going to back up and do a little bit of a review of John chapter one, and put some context around it, but bear with me, I promise this is relevant to the point John is making in today’s passage.
John begins this chapter with “In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God and the Word was God.” My friend, Mark, has been spending several months on this single chapter in John, and teaching the different arguments for God that can be found in this passage. This is an echo of Genesis chapter 1, which begins:
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.
3 Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. Then he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day” and the darkness “night.[1]”
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.[2]
I know that this is a repeat of the previous lesson, but the passage we will be reading today follows this prologue for a reason. Genesis chapter one is about separating the light from the darkness.
I think most of us read it as a straight creation story. That God created the earth from nothing and brought light. But there is a lot more going on in this passage. I’m not going to get into all of it here, but I want to point out a couple of things. First “the beginning” is not necessarily tied to day one. Time is a function of the speed of light, and there is no reference to time until God brings light. Time is not even a thing until there is light to mark it., which is what we see in Genesis one. After light is brought, there is the mention of the evening and morning as day one.
Tehom, Chaos, and the Abyss
The second thing is that the word “tehom,” in Hebrew, is translated in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible which was translated 200 years before Jesus was born, was not translated into a word that referred to an ocean or sea as we would assume. The word used there is abyssos, or abyss.
I wrote an essay in the Dragons issue of An Unexpected Journal called “Job and his Dragon.”[3] This “tehom,” as well as the Greek word “abyss” that the Septuagint translators used for this passage was connected to Tiamat, which was known as the goddess of chaos in ancient Mesopotamia. When I send a link to the recording of this lesson, I’ll send a link to the article, as well as the chat Ted Wright and I did on this topic.
The words “formless,” “void,” and “darkness” are not just about not having a physical shape, but about chaos, hopelessness, and despair.
- Abyss is a word that means bottomless, unbounded, the abyss, or the pit. This is the same word used in Revelation 20:3. Revelation was also written by the apostle John and John writes in that verse that Satan will be thrown into the abyss, same word.
- Luke uses that same word in Luke 8:31 in the account of Jesus casting the legion of demons out of the afflicted man, and they demons beg him not to cast them into the abyss, but to allow them to go into the pigs.
- Paul uses this word in Romans 10:7 when he references Deuteronomy 30:13 writing “who will descend into the abyss?” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead.)
There is an interesting thing about Romans 10:7 when Paul is quoting Deuteronomy 30:13. The Hebrew word “tehom” can mean sea, as well as the deep, bottomless depths, or the abyss. The Septuagint translators of Genesis translated that verse not as sea, but as abyss in Genesis one. The Hebrew word used in Deuteronomy 30:13 is not Tehom, but yam, which means a physical sea and the Septuagint translate that word into thalasa, which means sea, the verse in Deuteronomy is in the passage where God is instructing the Israelites to obey his commandments. The context of the passage is
11 “This command I am giving you today is not too difficult for you, and it is not beyond your reach. 12 It is not kept in heaven, so distant that you must ask, ‘Who will go up to heaven and bring it down so we can hear it and obey?’ 13 It is not kept beyond the sea, so far away that you must ask, ‘Who will cross the sea to bring it to us so we can hear it and obey?’ 14 No, the message is very close at hand; it is on your lips and in your heart so that you can obey it. (Deuteronomy 30:11-14)
Deuteronomy is talking about how to be right with God and experience God’s blessing.
However, when Paul quotes Deuteronomy 30:13, he does not use the Greek word for physical sea, “thalasa,” he is using the word abyss, which as this commentary points out means,
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(7) Into the deep.—In the original, beyond the sea. The word which St. Paul uses is found in the LXX. for “the sea,” but here means the abyss of Hades.[4]
Paul is directly connecting this rightness with God and walking in the blessing with the struggle that began in Genesis one against the darkness.
We learn the beginning of this fight in Genesis. John tells us how it will end, with Satan in the pit in Revelation.
But in John chapter one, he is giving us an account of the great reversal. John rephrases the Genesis account in the prologue proclaiming that the Word, the Logos, was in the beginning with God. Then he moves to the account of John the Baptist of the forerunner of the coming of the light, to prepare the way. John the Baptist told people to repent, to acknowledge that they were sinners.
Jesus Calls the Disciples
And then John the apostle moves on to the calling of the disciples … those who had followed John the Baptist, had prepared their hearts, had acknowledged their sins … and then they were ready when Jesus called them.
Now we are going to start the reading for the day.
40 Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of these men who heard what John said and then followed Jesus. 41 Andrew went to find his brother, Simon, and told him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means “Christ”).
Just as a reminder, at this point, there had been 400 years of silence when the Jews had had no new word from the Lord. They knew the time of the coming of their Messiah had come based on the prophecies of Daniel. They trusted Daniel’s prophecies because he had given very specific details about the nations that would come after Babylon … so specific that there are many skeptics that don’t think it was written during the time of the exile, but much later. However, the people of Jesus’s time recognized Daniel’s prophecies as true, they trusted them.
Daniel’s visions in Daniel 7 was so highly respected, that they caused a dramatic shift in the way that the Jews saw God. I’m not going to go into here, but I have an article on my website with a review of a book called The Two Powers in Heaven that explains how it came about. The Jews were expecting their Messiah and Jesus was not the only one who we claim to be him during that time. Andrew was expecting, had listened to John, and then went to tell his brother. Andrew had eyes to see.
42 Then Andrew brought Simon to meet Jesus. Looking intently at Simon, Jesus said, “Your name is Simon, son of John—but you will be called Cephas” (which means “Peter”).
43 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Come, follow me.” 44 Philip was from Bethsaida, Andrew and Peter’s hometown.
John the Baptist was the cousin of Jesus. John the Baptist’s disciples respected and trusted him. Andrew was a follower of John the Baptist, he brought his brother Simon, and then Jesus called Philip who knew Andrew and Peter because they were from the same town.
So far, Jesus getting disciples based entirely on the recommendation from his cousin. Jesus was working by referral.
This is how so many things work. That is actually the difference between the middle class and the wealthy. I read a book called Bridges out of Poverty by Ruby Payne. It is on sociology, not theology, it’s really interesting, but one thing that she says is that the middle class focus on working hard, the striving, while the wealthy invest in relationships.
That is what Jesus did. He focused on relationships. His ministry began through family and relationships. He developed relationships with his disciples, and the purpose of his ministry was to bring us into relationship with God.
I also think this is why so many first generation immigrants prosper when they come to America. They know the value of relationships, while many Americans who have been here for generations have forgotten that. They think they can do it, and have done it, all their own and no one does.
When I first started teaching in Pakistan, Mark just told the group he was working with in Pakistan that I was the one they wanted to teach their classes. They didn’t even ask me what my qualifications were or even watch any of my teachings, I don’t think. They brought me in, solely on Mark’s recommendation.
As we’ve been working through helping our Afghan friends, that is also how it’s been working. Someone knows someone, and then there is also quite a bit of the providence of God at work.
So let’s continue in our passage, we are coming to the first little bit of pushback that Jesus receives.
45 Philip went to look for Nathanael and told him, “We have found the very person Moses and the prophets wrote about! His name is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth.”
46 “Nazareth!” exclaimed Nathanael. “Can anything good come from Nazareth?”
“Come and see for yourself,” Philip replied.
Philip goes to tell Nathanael that they have found the one and Nathanael is skeptical. A Messiah from Nazareth is not what they were expecting. It was the wrong side of the tracks, not prominent.
It’s okay to be skeptical, it is good to be. We should always test something for truth. But we should also be open to the truth when it is in front of us. Nathanael didn’t think that the Messiah could be from Nazareth, but he was willing to be wrong … so he went to see. What would have happened if he had been dead set in his opinion and refused to even considering changing his mind?
What Happened Under the Fig Tree?
So he went to see Jesus for himself.
47 As they approached, Jesus said, “Now here is a genuine son of Israel—a man of complete integrity.”
48 “How do you know about me?” Nathanael asked.
Jesus replied, “I could see you under the fig tree before Philip found you.”
49 Then Nathanael exclaimed, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God—the King of Israel!”
And Jesus gives Nathanael reason to believe. I think here we see that God doesn’t get offended that we want to know the truth. He spoke something of significance to Nathanael. Something that he and Nathanael knew, but the rest of the disciples didn’t. Anyone else wonder just exactly what happened under the fig tree? Someday we’ll find out.
Whatever it was, this is my own speculation. I think it was something painful, I think it was something where Nathanael had to make a hard choice and he made the right one. Jesus was commending him, telling him that God was pleased with him, a “genuine son of Israel,” — makes you think whatever it was had something to do with religious hypocrites doesn’t it? — and praises him for having “complete integrity.”
Philip had told Nathanael that they had found the Messiah, the Christ. Nathanael was skeptical. There was something about Nathanael’s recent experience that Jesus used to speak to that confirmed who he was. He told Nathanael, “I know, I see, and you did well.”
Nathanael called Jesus “Rabbi.” The leader’s guide for this lesson makes a note that rabbi not only means teacher, but also indicates a sort of authority, more of master and servant. Nathanael calls Jesus the “Son of God—the King of Israel.” He is confirming that he believes what Philip has said, that they have found the Christ. Nathanael gives up his skepticism and disbelief and believes in Jesus.
The Jewish Expectation of the Messiah
Just a side note, the leaders’ guide says that only the Son of God could be the Messiah. We understand that looking back, but that was not necessarily the understanding of who the Messiah would be when they were right in the middle of it. There were groups of Jews that believed that the Messiah would be divine. You see that expectation in the Book of Enoch, which was written during the Intertestamental period in how Enoch writes of the Messiah. We know that the New Testament writers regarded Enoch highly because it is quoted in the New Testament. They were able to see Jesus for who he was because their minds and imaginations had been prepared by the books they had been reading, so they recognized Jesus as a fulfillment of the prophecies in that way. However, not all of Judaism believed that.
It’s important to remember that, especially when you’re talking to Jewish people, about the Jewish Messiah and how Jesus fulfilled the prophecies about him. Just as Christians have different ideas about Jesus’s second coming will play out, the Jews had different ideas about what the Messiah’s coming would look like in general.
God’s plan is not impacted by our opinions. What he plans will be. Our opinions are ideas about what truth is, it is not truth itself. And truth doesn’t change, truth proofs. Daniel gave the timeline, if Jesus wasn’t the Messiah, the Jewish Messiah isn’t coming. The Jews believed Daniel. They saw how everything else in Daniel’s prophecies played out, they were looking for the Messiah, but then when he came, many people didn’t like what he looked like, they didn’t like what he had to say.
Because he called them to account. He called out the religious hypocrites. He told them to repent and turn their hearts to God. This was another prophecy wasn’t it? God said, I will give you new hearts.[5] But we have to be willing to give up the old. Islam is about oppression, force and control. God is love, Jesus showed us that. Jesus calls, but we have to receive the gift. We have to be willing. John writes this in John 1:12, this is the Youngs Literal Translation
but as many as did receive him to them he gave authority to become sons of God — to those believing in his name,[6]
Now back to the rest of our passage
50 Jesus asked him, “Do you believe this just because I told you I had seen you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than this.” 51 Then he said, “I tell you the truth, you will all see heaven open and the angels of God going up and down on the Son of Man, the one who is the stairway between heaven and earth.”
Jesus is telling Nathanael that he will see the bridge created between God and man. That bridge is the Cross. This is also a reference to Jacob’s ladder in Genesis. We could say a lot more about that, but maybe another time.
I want to wrap up this lesson by tying this back to the beginning.
John starts his Gospel by presenting again an account of the beginning. The first verses acknowledge Jesus as God and he is presenting it again in a slightly different way. Not only is he addressing the Jewish understanding of Creation, but John is directly refuting the heresy that was prevalent during the time he was writing it. The Gospel of John was the last book of the Bible to be written and was written at the end of the first century in Ephesus after John has been released from Exile on the island of Patmos. Gnosticism was widespread and creeping into the church.
That is just an FYI, we don’t have time to talk about that.
The creation story is showing the beginning of the struggle against evil. In ancient myths, it is the gods who war against each other. But God has a different plan.
And John tells how it is being brought about. John the Baptist was the one who gave the call to arms. Jesus says in Matthew 11:12 that “from the time of John the Baptist until now, the Kingdom of Heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.”
God’s plan is to make us his children, the Sons of God. When the angel appeared to Gideon, he said, “Hail mighty warrior, God is with you.” Immanuel means “God with us.” When Jesus is called the Prince of Peace, it doesn’t necessarily mean that peace is all around us, but that peace is within us. In spite of the circumstances, God is with us.
Immanuel, God with us,” also means we are the plan through Christ. Through him, when we receive him, we become the Sons of God. We are the violent, the ones shaking the heavens. We do this when the Holy Spirit displaces the darkness within us, when he gives us new hearts, and when we act out on those gifts he has given us.
God’s purpose in all this was to use the church to display his wisdom in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. 11 This was his eternal plan, which he carried out through Christ Jesus our Lord. Ephesians 3:10
This Bible lesson was originally taught by Carla Alvarez on December 11, 2022 in the Kingdom Citizens Bible study Class at the Second Baptist North campus in Kingwood, Texas.
Endnotes
[1] Genesis 1:3-4
[2] John 1:1-5 NIV
[3] C.M. Alvarez, “Job and His Dragon,” An Unexpected Journal: Dragons 5, no. 1. (Summer 2022), 118-128.
[4] “Romans 10,” Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers, Bible Hub, accessed December 10, 2022. https://biblehub.com/commentaries/ellicott/romans/10.htm
[5] “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” Ezekiel 36:26 NIV
[6] John 1:12 YLT
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