All About GOD - Growing Relationships with Jesus and Others

Becoming you

In Jesus … who you can truly become. John 1.42-51

Listen to the podcast: https://www.pastorwoman.net/podcast/episode/50994031/in-jesus-who-y...

Love believes the best about others.

Jesus couldn’t help but believe the best about others;

it was just who he was.

Sure, he was honest about how he found them but Jesus saw them redeemed . . . he looked and saw his potential;

he looked and saw her purpose. Watch.

“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”). [Peter also means “rock”] John 1.42

Jesus renamed him ‘Peter, the rock’ because he knew what Peter would become-- the first outspoken, Spirit-filled leader in the Christian church in Jerusalem.

John has carefully ordered the events of Jesus’ first week of ministry—beginning with the day the Jewish leaders came out to question John the Baptist about what he was doing and why he was baptizing. Then Jesus passed by and John the Baptist announced him as the ‘Lamb of God' and two of his disciples became followers of Jesus that day. And then . . .

“The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Come, follow me.” Philip was from Bethsaida, Andrew and Peter’s hometown.

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.” “Nazareth!” exclaimed Nathanael. “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” “Come and see for yourself,” Philip replied.

>Notice with me that Philip does not argue with Nathanael – about anything good coming from Nazareth, as there was a Roman army garrison meant to keep the Jews ‘in line’ there . . . not to mention the Nazarenes' back woods nature … ‘I mean really, a Messiah from Nazareth? Oh, nooooo!’

“As they approached, Jesus said, “Now here is a genuine son of Israel—a man of complete integrity.” “How do you know about me?” Nathanael asked.

Jesus replied, “I could see you under the fig tree before Philip found you.”

Then Nathanael exclaimed, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God—the King of Israel!” 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.” Then he said, “I tell you the truth, you will all see . . ."

I love that Jesus saw who Peter was to become and he gave him that name – Rock! And then, there was Nathanael . . . Jesus saw him under the fig tree which always stood for peace for the Jewish people. But there was something much more that Jesus communicated to the heart of Nathanael; Jesus saw far beyond where Nathanael was, to what he could become – that which Nathanael only carried in his heart, and yet, Jesus knew him.

And to Nathanael, that was life! When Jesus was able to look around a ‘corner that he could not see’ with his physical eyes, Nathanael knew. He knew that Jesus saw him under the fig tree, that Jesus really knew his heart and to him that meant everything—enough to drop whatever else he was doing and follow Jesus. He seemed to know that in Jesus, he would become.

He sees what we ought become as well, if we walk with him. Such plans he has for us!

Love believes the best about others.

Jesus believes the best about us; it is just who he is.

Don’t you love that about him?

Plus, he never gives up on us. No, not ever.

That's the best news you'll get all day,

Christine

PastorWoman.com

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