God Has His
Eye on You
Jesus saw Nathanael coming to
him, and said of him, "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!"
Nathanael said to him, "How do you know me?" Jesus answered him, "Before
Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you."
John 1:47-48
Bette Midler had a song a few years ago called "From a Distance". Its still
played on some stations and I am sure you know it.
The notion is that we are not alone, that God is watching, from a distance,
even though up close the world looks different.
The last stanza and refrain go like this:
From a distance there is harmony,
and it echoes through the land.
And it's the hope of hopes, it's the love of loves,
it's the heart of every man.
It's the hope of hopes, it's the love of loves.
This is the song of every man.
And God is watching us, God is watching us,
God is watching us from a distance.
Oh, God is watching us, God is watching.
God is watching us from a distance.1
At times it seems as though God is distant, and then there are times when
our awareness of God is of someone right here with us. The idea that I like
in the song is that we are not beyond the view of God.
That certainly is the message of Psalm 139 which we read alongside John's
gospel this morning.
The psalmist would say that we are very much in the view of God, who is
never distant, as much as we might like Him to be at times.
In a way, that is part of the core message of John's gospel...the creating
God who is before everything has now taken on the form of human flesh to live
among us in the person of Jesus. In Jesus, not only do we see that God sees
us, but for the very first time, we get to see God in the flesh.
And so this one who sees and knows us, comes into the world to also be
known.
The passage we read in John 1 is the calling of Philip and Nathanael.
Jesus is beginning to put together his hand picked group of fellow workers
and pilgrims.
John 1:43 says, "finding Philip, Jesus said 'follow me'" Philip was from
the same town of Bethsaida as Andrew and Peter.
Philip then went to the town next to Bethsaida, Cana, and found Nathanael,
presumably his friend, and said, come we have found the one the scriptures
teach about.
Philip had an idea of what he was looking for.
“The one whom the law, Moses and the prophets spoke about”
The world we live in is full of pretenders claiming to have the real goods
on heaven and earth.
How do you know what is genuine?
Philip had a source he trusted--the scriptures through which God had spoken
for centuries.
God can speak to you through words other than the Bible.
And it is possible to find gold just by hiking through mountains
and panning mountain streams. People do, though for the most part they don’t
find much.
A far better way to improve your chances is to do a bit of reading on geology.
Gold typically is found in certain kinds of geological formations. An educated
geologist is far more likely to recognize a gold bearing formation than you
or I will just by looking for gold in a stream, or sticking out of a rock.
The same is true for diamonds.
For decades bush pilots have flown over the hundreds of circular pot hole
lakes and ponds in the North West Territories and thought nothing of them.
But someone with a geological knowledge of diamond bearing formations was
able to see them with new eyes, and behold there is now a diamond mining industry
in the north.
Philip was not even prospecting for the messiah as far as we know. But
when the real thing came along he knew how to recognize Him. He was in line
with what Moses and the prophets wrote.
Presumably Philip is a friend of Nathanael, so he went and told him about
Jesus, of Nazareth.
Nathanael's reaction is “can anything good come from Nazareth?” which was
a village notorious for breeding revolution and troublemakers. “Come and see”
is Philip’s only response. No argument, just come and see.
So Nathanael did.
Jesus’ comment to Nathanael is interesting.
He says, “behold, a true Israelite in whom is no guile”.
The meaning is plain enough and can be understood. Jesus is giving Nathanael
a readout on his spiritual condition, and more probably, on Nathanael's deepest
convictions. He is greeting him not by name, but his inner nature.
Undoubtedly Nathanael had tried to practice being a man of integrity, plain
spoken—which is evident in his response to Philip. Jesus tells Nathanael that
he understands his deepest longings from the moment he meets him.
This blows Nathanael away.
“How do you know me?” he asks.
Also how do you know so much about me?
Have you met someone who just seems to instinctively understand you?
What an incredible experience that is.
Probably Philip and Nathanael had some of that as friends.
But Jesus knows Nathanael to the core.
How do you know me?
Have you ever prayed that?
How do you know me Lord? Its not just a prayer of “do you know me?”
It is “How do you know me? What would you say about me, Lord?"
Do I really want to know?
It is one thing to believe in an abstract kind of way that , sure, God
knows all about me.
It is quite another matter to ask the question, but how do you know me Lord?
I suppose Nathanael is asking the question, “where did you get this information
about me?”
But we also hear his amazement at the content of what Jesus knows.
He is known how? He is known as a man who longs for integrity and who tries
his best.
That’s quite an experience. Quite an experience for God to acknowledge
that about you.
Jesus greets him by his longing for better, not by his failings.
Do a study of the gospels and you will see this pretty much universally
with Jesus.
His first point of contact is not at the point of our weakness. It is at
the point of our longing for something better.
This is how Jesus connects with you.
Yours and my weaknesses and failings need to be dealt with, but this is
not how Jesus names us.
He does not look at us and say, "cynic" He might say, "wounded--looking
for healing"
He does not say "lazy". He might say, "looking for a cause, so far unsuccessfully"
He meets a woman at a well who had been in a series of marriages. What
does he acknowledge first off?
You have what I need--a bucket and rope.
Jesus touches us at the point where we have something inside that hopes
for better.
If you want a prayer to pray, take Psalm 139 and find yourself a fig tree
to sit under, or a comfortable quiet place in the house and read psalm 139
to God as your prayer to God.
It begins with a statement of belief, “Oh Lord, you have searched me and
know me. You know when I sit and when I rise. You perceive my thoughts from
afar.” And it ends with a request “Search me, O God and know my heart, test
me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and
lead me in the way everlasting”
I wonder if Nathanael had been studying psalm 139 before he met Philip.
I would not be surprised.
But perhaps he had been studying Genesis, the life of Jacob, because Jesus
words to him are a kind of double entendre on the life of Jacob.
You remember Jacob. His name literally means “the supplanter”…or manipulator.
Jacob, the trickster—the con artist.
But when God wrestles with Jacob all night, he touches him and changes
his name to Israel.
It can just as easily be read that Jesus is saying to Nathanael, “Behold
a true Israelite in whom there is no Jacob-- no con man”
This obviously touches Nathanael and when he believes on the spot, Jesus
says, to the man who so recently had the stance of the unmoveable skeptic—you
believe just because I told you I saw you under the fig tree? In other
words, where is that tough skeptical exterior?
But then he goes on to remind him of the life of Jacob.
Jacob, when running away from his brother whom he had defrauded, stops
in the wilderness overnight and laying his head upon a stone, has a vision
of heaven.
A ladder from heaven to earth appears with angels ascending and descending
on it, and the voice of God promising to look after him and bring him home
again safely.
Jesus says, in effect, I am Jacob’s ladder. I am the gateway to heaven.
All who ascend or descend to God, come via me. And this you will see.
Jesus calls Philip
Philip goes and tells Nathanael.
Jesus meets Nathanael who is taken aback by Jesus’ knowledge about him.
Jesus tells Nathanael, I saw you before we met. I have known you before
we met.
The same is true of you and me.
God has his eye on you. God has always had his eye on you.
There is nothing about you that God does not know, or understand.
No matter what it is, remember, God knows you and God loves you.
What should you do with that knowledge?
Nathanael's response is a good one. He said “rabbi, you are the son of
God, the King of Israel."
Rabbi means teacher.
Acknowledge Jesus as your teacher and learn from Him.
I would advise beginning with Psalm 139. Read it weekly and ask God to
show you who you are.
Do you know?
God knows. Ask Him to open the book on you and show you what God sees.
Nathanael then calls him the son of God
You are the son of God. Jesus has the right to teach. Because He
knows!
Then he calls him the King of Israel
You are the king of Israel.
Back to the true Israelite theme again. But now Nathanael is saying, “if
I am a true Israelite, this Israelite has found his King. It is a pledge of
allegiance.
Have you pledged allegiance to the King of heaven and earth?
In public schools in the U.S. children used to pledge allegiance on a daily
or weekly basis. I suspect this may not be universal anymore.
So why not set a day –besides Sunday—aside to make your pledge of allegiance
to the king.
And depending on what God knows about you that allegiance may first involve
giving up some very bad life habits.
Or it may mean returning to some higher principles you may have abandoned
years ago.
Or perhaps it means acknowledging that you have wasted too much time looking
for the real thing, only to find dust, but now embrace Jesus as the real deal.
Whatever it is that God knows most deeply about you will determine what
that allegiance will mean. That’s why you should begin with asking, “How
do you know me, Lord?”
And Jesus says, you will see angels ascending and descending to and from
heaven.
I believe that.
I believe that when we embrace Jesus leadership in our lives, God opens
doors we could never open on our own.
We waste so much of our lives looking for gold or diamonds in the wrong
places and with the wrong tools.
The real thing has found us.
Acknowledge him as your teacher and learn
Acknowledge him as son of God and trust his view of you and your life.
Acknowledge him as your King and follow him.
And then watch and see if doorways or windows to heaven do not start opening
for you.
I think the best is yet to come.
Stay tuned.
Preached Sunday January 18, 2009
Notes
1.Bette Midler, From a Distance
Resources Consulted
A.T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the
New Testament, vol 5, Broadman, 1932
William Hull, The Gospel of John,
Broadman Bible Commentary, Broadman Press
Online Resources Consulted
http://www.preachingtoday.com/
Return to Main Sermon Page
Email Harold McNabb