Title: Learning from Philip / John 1:43-51
Everyone, whoever believes and accepts Jesus Christ as their Savior, has been given the responsibility to preach.
The story of today's text is about Philip, who was called by Jesus, after meeting Jesus and then discovering that He is the Savior, then goes to Nathanael and evangelizes him again. And the scene where that Nathanael receives the evangelism and comes to Jesus is recorded.
1. an insightful person
In today's text, as soon as Philip met Jesus after being called by Jesus, he immediately knew that Jesus was the Messiah prophesied in the Bible.
Philip Who was he? In short, he was a man of great spiritual insight. He was a man who recognized at a glance who Jesus Christ was.
Alaska is a large piece of land, one-fifth the size of the continental United States. Originally, Alaska was part of the Soviet Union.
In 1867, during Johnson's tenure as president, he purchased the land for $7.2 million. The purchase of Alaska, the land in question known only as the land of glaciers of ice at the time, turned the US Congress upside down. The Secretary of State and the President were summoned and rebuked. All kinds of accusations and attacks were poured out for buying useless land without the consent of the National Assembly. One of them raised a high voice: "If you need ice, you will use the Mississippi River as ice, so why did you buy Alaska, which is nothing more than an ice box?" A joint government and congressional investigation team then explored Alaska, and discovered that the land was rich in pure gold, platinum, and oil, and found an inexhaustible amount of fishing grounds. At that time, the media made a special note that the United States did not buy the land of ice, but bought the land of gold. In addition, lawmakers from both houses of the House and the House of Representatives visited the White House to sincerely apologize.
With one man's insight, we can see that the United States has become incredibly powerful.
This insight is what we need today.
We must be able to see Jesus Christ with this insight. And if you have discovered who Jesus Christ is with that insight, you should be able to risk everything you have for him.
In the Bible, there is a story of a farmer who is farming in someone else's house, and finds a treasure in that rocky field, then buries it and invests all his fortune to buy the field.
There are some of you who believe in Jesus, invest all of their lives for Jesus, and live their previous lives for Him! Some people, even after meeting Jesus, live without feeling. It is a picture of people living in poverty while having great treasures.
we need to know We must see with insightful eyes what kind of person Jesus is the one we believe in now. Those who have that kind of perspective are the ones who succeed on this earth. Even in business, people with this insight get their business ideas from places that don't care what others don't. Such a person is successful. But without such insight, it is difficult to succeed in business. They are people who always follow what others have done and hit the back drum.
May you have the spiritual insight to see what is most precious in your life. Just like Philip's insight today.
2. A person with prejudice
Philip was not the only one who owned that good thing. He recognized Jesus whom he had met at a glance, and immediately followed up with Nathanael, who was with him, and preached with confidence, although he did not know whether he was a close friend or not. However, when Nathanael hears about Jesus' birthplace, he has a preconceived notion. “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Preconceived notions of where he came from. We may have these false preconceived notions.
Two mothers and fathers died in an accidental car accident, so there was a house where only a grandmother, a young grandson, and a granddaughter lived. The grandmother was making a living by making and selling simple fried foods in a food stall at the entrance of the village for the cost of living for the children, and the two children had just entered elementary school and were making a good living by studying hard at school. Surprisingly, the two children did well in school, and the grandchildren would always get 100 points. For the hard-working grandmother, the test papers she received were the greatest pleasure from her smart grandchildren who come to the food stalls every day and eat fries.
Then one day, my grandson took an exam at school, but he didn't get a perfect score and got one question wrong. The old woman who took the test paper hit her chest with tears in her eyes. The grandmother's tears were not because of the grandmother's greed to always get a perfect score, but because of the wrong problem of her grandson. the problem is
Question) Which of the following children have good eating habits?
1) Eat only delicious food. 2) Eat without washing your hands. 3) Eat food prepared by your mother.
4) Eat food sold on the street.
Of course, the correct answer is number three, but for this grandson, it wasn't. The answer to this child was number 4.
For a motherless child, the food grandma sells on the street wasn't bad.
There are times when we ask for the right answer with our own wrong bias. For Nathanael today, it was a prejudice that such a great person prophesied in the Bible could be born in that poor country village of Nazareth.
Nazareth was the hometown where Jesus spent his whole life from fetus to infancy, except for a brief escape to Egypt after his birth. Born in a manger in Bethlehem, Jesus fled to Egypt to escape Herod's persecution, and returned to the land of Israel as the angel of the Lord told him to settle in Nazareth, the hometown of his parents. When Jesus preached the gospel, he left Nazareth, but the word Nazareth was always attached to the name of Jesus. We may lose something precious because of our prejudices if we do it wrong. The people who are truly successful are those who know how to let go of this prejudice. Prejudiced people don't find treasure.
3. It's an experience, not a description.
How did Philip get rid of this prejudice?
“Philip said, Come,” Yes. Just show me. If you come and experience it yourself, you can shake off all prejudices. Did I say "a hundred words are ineffective"! Once you show it, nothing is more certain than that.
It is better to believe in Jesus than to explain in a hundred words. Nothing is more certain than that. Sometimes when we do evangelism, we often try to say something. However, no matter how much we say, there are some things that we cannot put into words. How can we speak of that great God? What do you mean at that time? "Come! Once you come, you'll find out." How would you describe food as delicious as possible? You don't know the taste unless you try it. You just have to try it.
No matter how cool it is, how would you describe it? Show it once and that's it.
We can't really tell everyone about Jesus. Our language has its limits. That's why we're bringing it up first. There is nothing better than bringing him and him to meet Jesus.
Today Philip brought Nathanael, who had such a prejudice, to Jesus. Then what happened? Verse 49 says, "You are God's people, and you are the King of Israel."
That's right. The most important thing is to let us experience what is more important than to describe Jesus in a hundred words.
That's right. Dear saints, are we explaining Jesus or are we experiencing it? We pray that we will become believers who experience Jesus, not those who show Jesus through explanations. There are a lot of debate-loving people around us, and I hope you will guide them not as polemics, but as experienced ones. Then he will have the same joy of salvation that you have. Amen