46 And Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.”
46 And Nathanael said to him,
Nathanael questioned the authenticity of Jesus because of the place of His birth.
“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
Nazareth held a poor reputation as a city. There was a certain contempt about Nazareth in other cities of Galilee because it was an insignificant and ruddy town. Maybe Nathanael thought Jesus should have come from a major city like Jerusalem, not a rag-tag town like Nazareth. Nazareth was also theologically inconsequential in Scripture. Nathaniel expressed classic doubt and skepticism about Jesus here.
Nathanael’s question was no light quibble about something irrelevant; rather, he had a genuine difficulty, an authentic doubt, about Jesus’ origin. Authentic questions need answers shedding light, not excursions into side issues. Not all questions come from a critical attitude.
Philip said to him, “Come and see.”
Philip knew that, if Nathanael met Jesus personally, his questions would be answered. It took until verse 49 for Nathanael to find out that Jesus was the “Son of God.”
Philip’s response was the same as Christ’s in 1:39: “Come and see.” Philip did not attempt to argue with Nathanael but offered an invitation to see for himself. He had the wisdom not to argue with him. Philip learned from Jesus as to how to appeal to people. Like Jesus, he did not condemn Nathanael but invited him the very same way Jesus did. Neither did he argue with Nathanael but simply invited him to investigate first hand the claims of Christ.
PRINCIPLE:
Honest inquiry is the answer for prejudice.
APPLICATION:
Preconception is always a problem when it comes to Jesus. The best way to allay ourselves of bias is to open our minds to the truth of who He is. Misunderstanding is a big problem in our society. People constantly operate within their own biases. They think they know who and what Jesus is. Generally, men and media skew who Jesus is. They need major revision of their picture of Christ.
It is important not to judge a case before receiving the evidence. We need to operation on first-hand investigation if we are going to truly engage with who and what Jesus is. This is the true condition for discovery and verification. People need to come directly to Jesus in order to see truly who He is.
Some people measure others by themselves. They think others are liars because they are liars. They judge others by their own experiences. Those who share Christ need to understand the way people object to Him. Many hide behind personal quibbles.
In this day and age how many would believe in a man of GOD who did not have a huge mega church or live in a large mansion, drive a expensive car, etc. etc. even though he was preaching the true Gospel?
Delmus, and many of those mega church pastors are false teachers. Some faithfully teach God’s Word. The standard for listening to a preacher is whether he is true to the Bible.
Jesus said you shall know a tree by its fruit. Large churches and wealth do not exclude God from producing fruit from their churches. You cannot be the judge of what they have spent their money on. You don’t know how that mansion is being used. Allow the Holy Spirit to be the one to discern which churches are false and if one of our faith is spending their money foolishly, allow the Spirit to correct their heart directly or through those close to them. A church can also be false if it is a shack full of dry dusty pews and dry dusty hearts. Let God judge. Just like Nathaniel needed to see Jesus to know him, we need to know people in real life in order to see the fruit they are bearing for the Lord.