By Deacon Virginia Jenkins Whatley
Sunday, January 17, 2021
John 1:43-51
You always hear people say I remember the first time I found
Jesus and it changed my life. It’s actually the other way around,
He found you and your life changed.
The truth of our Christian story is not that you and I found
Christ but Christ has found us. We do not decide for God. God
decided for us.
At the beginning of our gospel, Jesus found Philip not the other
way around. This is important because the knowledge that God
has sought us out rather than vice versa is crucial in keeping us
humble before God.
When Jesus found Philip he issued a single command, “Follow
me”. Putting Jesus first in your lives is demanded of us
Christians. Sacrifices have to be made in our thinking and way
of life. When he calls us to follow him we have to remember
that He is Lord of all or not at all. You should not be a some
time or part time follower though we get it wrong from time to
time and fall short of the ideal.
We must remember that we are disciples of Jesus. The first rule
of being a disciple is to tell others about Jesus. The first thing
Philip did was find his brother, Nathaniel and tell him whom he
found. Philip and his brother were both found by Jesus but
according to Philip, “they found him whom Moses in the law
wrote about.”
Though you may be happy, enthusiastic and passionate about
sharing the good news about Jesus this can be met with
resistance. You should not lose confidence when your message
is not always welcomed.
Nathaniel like many was cynical and perhaps rude . We are not
to be discouraged by the response we may get from others but
trust that an encounter with God will be life changing for them
too. When it comes to evangelism a simple response of “Come
and see” should be sufficient and let God do the rest. Just keep
saying it.
Will they experience a sense of excitement that sometimes
happens or have an experience of worship that gives them
access to God.
In the passage it states that when Jesus saw Nathaniel coming
toward him, he said of him, “He is truly an Israelite in whom
there is no deceit; Nathaniel asked him, “Where did you come
to know me? Jesus answered, “ I saw you under the fig tree
before Philip called you.”
Friends, we are talking about Jesus. He can perceive your heart
and recognize you for who you really are..Spiritually he knows
the real Nathaniel and all of us. Spiritually He has his hand on
our lives well before our being.
As Christians, we know that peace and blessings can only come
from our relationship with Jesus. The more we allow Jesus to be
the center of our lives, the more we know peace in our hearts
We are called into a life of peace and blessings with God. Jesus
sees us, he knows everything about us and knows our deepest
needs. If we follow him as he says to Nathaniel, we will see
heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and
descending upon the Son of Man.
As his disciples we are found by Him, we are to share our love
and tell others about Him, not lose faith when others are not
receptive and remember that following Jesus means receiving
peace and blessing from God.
Amen