How Do You Know Me?

John 1:35-51

Key Verse 1:48

In last weeks message Jonathon told us about Jesus’ calling to his disciples’ “Come, follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” Today we once again get to talk about the subject of fishing men but we have a unique blessing in that we get to see how Jesus himself fished men. Therefore, let’s prepare ourself to learn from the Master of fishing men—Jesus Christ. Let’s pray…

Back in 2000 UBF Long Beach went on a fishing trip. We went out into the deep Pacific Ocean to fish for fish. It was a great time. I learned a lot from that trip like (1) how to put a hook through the nose of an anchovy so that it will swim around as live bait; how to cast the line out into the water without hooking another person on the boat and much, much more. But the biggest thing that stuck out to me was when the boat’s Captain told us that different fish swim at different depths. Yellow tail are at one level, barracuda are at another level, etc. Everyone wanted to catch a yellowtail so they could cut it up and each fresh sashimi. But we weren’t sure how deep or shallow yellowtail were swimming at. As we started some people were getting bites but they couldn’t “hook” the fish. Hooking is where you let the fish eat the bait and start to swim away and then once you know they have swallowed the bait you jerk back on the line which sinks the hook into their mouth. At first a lot of fish got away because no one knew how to “hook”. Eventually, some people got the technique down and fish started to fill up the bags onboard.

Nearing the middle of the day Little Isaac Kim caught the first and only yellow tail of the day. Everyone asked him how he did but he really didn’t know. It seemed that God just blessed him. Mostly we caught a lot of barracuda (which aren’t that tasty). I learned that when you catch the fish you have to have some kind of finishing technique. I liked Missionary Isaac’s “stomp the head of the fish” technique the most. I was kinda scared to try it so I just put my fish in the bag to suffocate it. Later, I learned how different each type of fish is and how unique techniques and approaches has to be given to catch each one.

Today’s passage is similar because we see Jesus Christ fishing for men but you’ll notice that he adapts his message according to the type of person he is hooking. He never uses the same technique twice. So since all believers are called to be “fishers of men” we have a lot to learn from Jesus.

Look at verses 35-39.

 35The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. 36When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, "Look, the Lamb of God! 37When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. 38Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, "What do you want?" They said, "Rabbi" (which means Teacher), "where are you staying?" 39"Come," he replied, "and you will see." So they went and saw where he was staying, and spent that day with him. It was about the tenth hour.

The first two men mentioned in these verses is Andrew and John. They were friends who had been following John the Baptist. They were both fishermen but despite the odd hours of that job and the demanding work, they had made commitments to be disciples of John the Baptist. They were real “truth-seekers” who were compelled to find out more about God. John was always preaching about one of two thing: 1) repentance or 2) some mystery man whom John was not worthy to untie the thongs of his sandals. As verse 35 describes, their teacher John the Baptist was suddenly pointing out the mystery man directly and calling him the “Lamb of God.” Now because of John the Baptist’s preaching, Andrew and John starting following Jesus even though they had never met him.

You can imagine Andrew and John trailing behind Jesus 10 feet or so; whispering to each other to go forward and introduce themselves. But before they could build up the confidence to introduce themselves, Jesus turned around and said, “What do you want?”. Probably, their hearts skipped a beat because Jesus was so direct. After pausing a couple moments and then looking at each other, one of them said, “Rabbi, where are you staying?” Jesus then replied, most likely with a smile, “Come, and you will see.” The passage then tells us that they saw where he was staying and spent the day with him. We don’t know what they talked about during that time but the fact that they spent the entire day means a lot.

People who are “truth-seekers” have a lot of questions to be answered and are typically energetic to get them. Probably Andrew and John asked Jesus questions like: “Why did John the Baptist call you the ‘Lamb of God’?”; “Where is your family from?”; “What are you going to do?”; etc. Any question like this would have introduced an amazing discourse. We don’t know what they talked about but we know they saw something great in Jesus. For after spending the day with him, Andrew and John concluded, “We have found the Messiah.” What a relief they felt and what an exhilaration to actually know that they found the answer to all their burning questions.

Now it may seem like Andrew and John fished Jesus because they approached him first but in reality Jesus was the one doing the catching here. In a sense “truth-seekers” are like really hungry fish. So how did Jesus catch these two hungry fish? First he said, “Come and you will see?”, which was an invitation to experience time with the Lord and to hear his teaching for they had called him “Rabbi” which means “teacher”. And then secondly, when they came, he spent a lot of time with them and answered all their hungry questions. Basically, Jesus fed the fish and they jumped into his boat. Jesus fully fed them until they were satisfied. Even though it took a lot of time this was the way he caught them.

I have know a couple of real “truth-seekers” in my life and one in particular had a furious appetite for asking questions about God. He had begun Bible study with a UBF Bible teacher while he simultaneously tried out other religions. He came to Bible study and church but he also went around and around from one religion to another. One day it was ultra meditation with incense. Another day it was chanting with Hari Krishna. He kept sampling until he had eaten something from every type of religion I have ever heard of and some I never had heard of. Thankfully, this young man’s Bible teacher was dedicated enough to spend many hours on the phone talking with him about Jesus Christ. Eventually after maybe several hundred hours of being taught the Bible this young man accepted Jesus Christ as the Messiah and could testify to the empty answers of other religions. He met Jesus personally because he was fed the Word of God in abundance. Had his Bible teacher not fed that ferocious appetite for answers he might have kept wandering aimlessly from one guru to the next. To catch a hungry fish you need a lot of time and a lot of God’s Word.

Let’s look at verses 40-42.

40Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. 41The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, "We have found the Messiah" (that is, the Christ). 42And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, "You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas" (which, when translated, is Peter).

So Andrew came running home to talk to his brother Simon. Andrew came busting through the door yelling, “We have found the Messiah!” And then Andrew did a little dance around the room saying over and over again, “We have found the Messiah, we have found the Messiah!” Simon must have been pretty overwhelmed to see his brother acting so excited. Andrew then brought Simon to Jesus.

When Simon came to Jesus, Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas”. If you don’t already know, the name Cephas means Peter which when translated means Stone or Rock. What was the point of Jesus telling Peter he would be called “Rock”?

To appreciate Jesus’ words we have to understand Simon more. What we know about Simon is that he was a  tough manly man, an outgoing extravert and a bullheaded self-determinist. He was the guy who wanted to lead the charge and inspire the troops, for deep in his heart was a vision to be someone great, someone honorable. But instead of ascending to greatness and doing something respectable he had failed and remained as a fishermen his entire life. He was just the leader of a small group of companion fishermen. Deep inside the failure to do something great with his life made him dull and dreary.

So when Jesus looked at Simon he showed that he knew his failures and his heart’s desire to do something great and so he said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas.” 

I wonder what Simon’s face looked like when he heard that. Was he shocked? Was he surprised?

Maybe he just stood there shocked and thinking to himself, “Wow. Really?” It is safe to say that Jesus’ words rekindled Simon’s hope to do something important with his life once again.

To catch a fish like Simon Jesus took a totally different approach and used completely different words than what he did with Andrew and John. For Peter, Jesus planted vision according to Simon’s heart’s desire. By no means was he even close to being a rock-like person. Simon was so far from that but Jesus looked at him and spoke to that dead hope and inspired him with vision for the near future. Jesus acknowledged that Simon was a normal guy when he said, “You are Simon son of John.” And then planted vision, “You will be called Cephas.”

Likewise, if a Bible teacher prays for help to know their Bible student deeply, Jesus can give the wisdom to tell if such a student needs to have vision like Simon Peter did. We should know our Bible students so that like Jesus we can even catch their hearts with two sentences. How glorious it is if we could assess and help Bible students as fast as Jesus. Is it possible? YES! AMEN!

Let’s look at verses 43 and 44.

43The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, "Follow me." 44Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. 45Philip found Nathanael and told him, "We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." 46"Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?" Nathanael asked. "Come and see," said Philip.

The fourth person Jesus meets in this passage is Philip. Philip is a man of cold, hard facts. He makes his decisions and forms his opinion based on the facts and he never feels comfortable when he doesn’t know what to expect. Philip is a man who thinks like a calculator and gives his opinion based on his calculation. What is ironic here is that when we read how Jesus called Philip there is not much recorded except Jesus saying to him, “Follow me.” Why?

Once again we see Jesus adapting his way of fishing according to the type of person he is fishing. For Philip Jesus did not appeal himself to Philip’s calculating personality. Instead, he just told Philip what the right thing to do is and let him either act on faith or act on unbelief. He didn’t allow Philip the chance to make the decision a matter of facts but kept it a matter of faith. The Lord Jesus wasn’t about to try and persuade Philip according to his calculations because that wouldn’t help Philip.

Likewise, when God gives us students like Philip we are always tempted to try and persuade them because they often steer things towards the details of what it means to follow Jesus. So we wrongly point out other examples of those who followed Jesus and were blessed and we talk about how God has promised this blessing. We try to give just one more good reason why they should follow Jesus but just one more reason never comes. 

Jesus’ technique is counter intuitive because he totally throws facts out the window and just tells people to make a decision of faith. “Follow me.” Ironically, Philip-like people really want this! People who live according to facts and reason are slaves to facts and reason. In a sense these things become like a cruel task master telling them what they can and can’t do. But when Bible students are encouraged to live by faith and not by facts they have some hope to live above the fray of these details.

I had a Bible student who constantly told me how expensive it was to drive to Downey to come to church. Even though God called him to come here he kept on telling me how expensive the gas was. He knew the daily prices of the gas in different counties. He calculated in a lot of other ways too. Many times I tried to argue and reason with him but most of the time the facts weren’t on my side. So, instead of helping him live by faith I just concreted the idea of living by facts. In retrospect I saw the few times I emphasized living by faith in God’s Word I saw the best responses. Faith not facts catch fish.

When Philip started following Jesus he told his friend Nathanael. Philip’s approach to inviting Nathanael is typical of his personality: “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." In his invitation Philip included four facts about Jesus in one sentence. It is interesting how this factual approach didn’t go to well on Nathaniel for he said in response, “"Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?" When his approach didn’t work it is interesting that Philip just said, “Come and see.”

Let’s see what happened after that. Look at verses 47 to 51.

47When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, "Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false." 48"How do you know me?" Nathanael asked. Jesus answered, "I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.” 49Then Nathanael declared, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel. 50Jesus said, "You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You shall see greater things than that." 51He then added, "I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man." 

The fifth and last person Jesus fished in this passage is Nathanael. As we see in the passage when Jesus saw Nathanael approaching he said, “Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false.” This was a nice compliment but it wasn’t meant to be a compliment but it was Jesus’ hook to catch Nathanael who was obviously surprised with the insightful comment. Nathanael asked, “How do you know me?” And then Jesus said, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.” We can tell here that Jesus is not showing off his ability to know everything about everybody. Jesus’ intention is to catch a man who felt like no one understood him or knew him deeply. Jesus was connecting with the deep unsatisfied need of Nathanael to be understood by somebody.

Nathanael-like people are really hoping to find someone who understands and knows them deeply but for such a job what person can do such a thing. However, Jesus showed Nathanael that he knew his heart and he knew his whereabouts. He knew Nathanael up and down and he proved it to him by showing he saw him under the fig tree even before Philip called him. This was a unique approach for a unique guy. I have known a couple Nathanael-likes in my life and they are really desperate for this kind of understanding and if they find it in Jesus Christ and his servants they are fully committed forever. 

Jesus of course didn’t make this mistake and he didn’t make the mistake of believing in Nathanael’s excited declaration, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.” Instead of accepting this premature praise, Jesus told him, “You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You shall see greater things than that. I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” This glimpse into future glory was to encourage them to look beyond the temporary help Jesus gave them and to look into the glorious future that held much more.

In the same way, fishing men can bring about some joyful exuberance but we must help Bible students to have vision for eternity and not just focus on the initial benefits Jesus brings to his followers. For when we fish men we are inviting them to eternal fellowship with Jesus where personal benefits pale in-comparison to the glory of Christ himself.

So as we go out and fish this semester we need to appreciate Jesus’ ability to know the men he was fishing. And we should consider carefully that fishing for men is much more than going out and inviting people to Bible study. The real fishing happens during Bible study when the Word of God is opened and shared. May Jesus help us to know the student’s we fish this coming semester and give them the right Words of God in the right way so that they will be hooked to Jesus.