Years ago, Campus Crusade for Christ sponsored what they called the "I found it!" campaign. As a part of this evangelistic strategy, Crusade made available bumper stickers with a simple three word statement: "I found it!" The idea was that these bumper stickers would pique people's curiosity and cause them to ask what "I found it!" meant. That, of course, would give Christians opportunities to tell those who asked, about Jesus.
I remember that during this effort, some were discussing whether the statement "I found it!" was really the most appropriate statement to use. Some thought it would be more accurate to say, "He found me!" rather than "I found it!"
In our passage today, we are going to learn that both statements are correct. If you are a Christian, then you have found Jesus, and to find Jesus is to find salvation. But it is also true that in a deeper and more profound sense, Jesus first found you. I believe we can see this illustrated in our passage today in the experiences first of Philip and then of Nathanael.
We'll begin by looking at Philip's experience. Philip definitely found Jesus. Look at verse 45:
Philip found Nathaniel and said to him, "We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote -- Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph."Philip found Jesus. If you are a Christian, then you know that you too can say, "I found Him!" John 1:12 says,But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:You found Jesus in the sense of receiving Him into your life, in the sense of believing in His name. This is something you yourself did, and no one did it for you or in your behalf.We also see in our passage today that after Philip found Jesus, he followed Jesus. If we have truly found Jesus in the sense of believing in Him, then we are going to follow Jesus in the sense of obeying Him. Our faith is rooted deep in our hearts, and we cannot directly see our faith. What we can see is the fruit that our faith bears in our lives. Again, this is something we ourselves do. We find Jesus and we follow Jesus.
Yet look at John 1:43:
The following day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee, and He found Philip and said to him, "Follow Me."Here we read that Jesus found Philip. On one level and from one perspective, it was Philip who found Jesus. On another level and from another perspective, it was Jesus who found Philip.When we first come to Jesus, we tend to think only in terms of the fact that we have found Jesus. It tends to be later, especially when we begin asking the question, Why did I find Jesus when others have not?, that we begin to realize that Jesus also found us. As we search the Scriptures on the issue, we discover that behind the scenes and beginning in ages past, God has been working on a deeper, more profound, more significant level in finding us. As the hymn writer put it:
I sought the Lord, and afterward I knewYou found Jesus, and God found you, but God began His search long before you began yours. God began seeking you out in eternity past.
He moved my soul to seek him, seeking me;
It was not I that found, O Saviour true,
No, I was found of thee.If you are indeed one of God's people, then before the world was even created and before you even existed, God looked upon you, even though you then existed only in God's mind as He was planning creation and foreordaining history. God looked upon you with unconditional love and decided to save you from your sins. As it says in Ephesians 1:4-5:
[God] chose us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons ...God then sent Jesus into the world for the purpose of accomplishing your salvation, your redemption from sin. Before you were ever born, Jesus died to pay for your sins. Romans 5:8 says, "While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." In John 10:15, Jesus said, "I lay down my life for the sheep." If you are truly one of Jesus' sheep, if you are truly a member of His flock, then at the cross Jesus was laying down His life for you, laying down His life on your behalf as the payment for your sins.What God started, He is going to finish. If God sent Jesus to die for your sins and to accomplish your redemption, God is also going to send you the gospel and the Holy Spirit to apply that redemption to your heart and life. Romans 8:32 says,
He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?Before you believed, God brought the gospel message to you. Some people are born in remote jungle tribes that have never heard the message of Jesus. Others are born in totalitarian countries such as North Korea, where the gospel is prohibited and the children are indoctrinated with atheistic propaganda. Yet we were born in a land where the gospel is freely proclaimed. Many of us were born in Christian homes and in the fellowship and nurture of Christian churches. What did we do to deserve this? Nothing at all. We didn't deserve this. It is all of grace.But there is more. After God brought the gospel message to us but before we believed it, God worked in our hearts to enable us to believe.
Why did we believe the gospel message when others who also heard it did not? Are we better than they are? No, the credit should not go to us. The Bible says that we too, in our natural state, were spiritually blind, spiritually deaf, even spiritually dead. We all came from the one common lump of sinful humanity. There are not two lumps of clay, a good lump from which God makes those who will believe and a bad lump from which God makes those who won't believe. Romans 9:21says:
Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?We all come from the same common lump of sinful humanity, and yet we saw, we heard, we came - while others did not. Why? We find the answer in 1 Corinthians 1:23-24, where the Apostle Paul said,... we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.The reason we believed when others who heard the gospel didn't believe is because God sent to us not only the outward call of the gospel message but also the inner call which enabled us to see the gospel not as a stumbling block or as foolishness but as the power of God and the wisdom of God. This inner call is the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. Through this inner call, the Holy Spirit used the gospel message to convince us of our sin and misery, to enlighten our minds in the knowledge of Christ and to renew our wills.The outer call alone is like sheet lightening. It is grand and it is beautiful, but sheet lightening never strikes anything. The outer call combined with the inner call is like a lightening bolt, like the forked flash from heaven. It does an effectual work, and who can resist its power?
The Bible has three metaphors for this inner work of the Holy Spirit. It is compared to a creation. In 2 Corinthians 5:17, the Apostle Paul said,
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.It is compared to a birth. Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3:3:"Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."It is compared to a resurrection from the dead. In Ephesians 2:4-5, the Apostle Paul said,But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),Scripture calls this inner work of God a new creation, a new birth, and a spiritual resurrection. Just think about it. What does a creature contribute to its own creation? What did we do to contribute to our own birth? And on resurrection day when we are called from the graves, what will we do to contribute to our own resurrection? We don't contribute anything to any of these. We couldn't if we wanted to. Our own creation, our own birth and our own resurrection are accomplishments beyond our own ability, even though these are things we ourselves experience. All we do regarding creation, birth and resurrection is to passively receive what God does to and for us.Beyond that, these are acts of God which we can do nothing to stop. They are irrestistible. Has anyone ever successfully resisted his own creation? Has anyone ever successfully resisted his own birth? On resurrection day, will anyone be able to resist when God calls him from the grave to resurrection life? Will anyone be able to ignore God's call and stay in the grave? Creation, birth, and resurrection are irresistible acts. No one can successfully resist them.
The Bible compares this inner call of the Holy Spirit to creation, birth and resurrection. Why did you believe the gospel when others also heard it and did not believe? Why did you come to Jesus when others refused to come? Why were you able to find Him when others who were shown the way just as clearly, did not find Him? Because when you heard the gospel, the Holy Spirit worked in your heart. He effected a new creation, a new birth, a spiritual resurrection from spiritual death. And in the process, He gave you a new heart disposition, a heart freed from its sinful biases against deliverance from a life dominated by sin, a heart predisposed to coming to Jesus for spiritual life and deliverance. Yes, you did the believing yourself, but God gave you a heart that not only could believe the gospel but a heart that could do no other than believe the gospel.
Consider John 11 where Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. Jesus cried out, "Lazarus, come forth!" In response, Lazarus came out of his grave. If you were to ask Lazarus whether he came out of his grave, or Jesus came out of his grave for him, Lazarus would say that he is the one who walked out of that stone sepulcher on that day. And yet why was Lazarus able to do it? It was because Jesus gave him the ability. When Jesus said, "Lazarus, come forth!", Jesus commanded Lazarus to do something Lazarus had no power to do. But the words of Jesus were supernatural words that contained within them the power of their own fulfillment. They were like the words of God on the day of creation, when God said, Let there be light! and there was light. Yes, Lazarus came out of that grave, but it was Jesus who enabled Lazarus to do it.
It is the same way with the gospel command. The gospel command is, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved." Why did we obey that command when others did not? Because Jesus first gave us a new heart. And with that new heart, not only were we able to come to Christ, we also could do no other. So when we come to Jesus, our attitude should be not one of pride but one of gratitude. We shouldn't be saying,
"Look how great I am! I came to Jesus when others did not!"We should be saying,"Thank you, Jesus, for enabling me to believe! Apart from your grace, I too would have remained in hardened unbelief."This is why we view that faith as a gift God has given us, even though we and not God did the believing. Yes, we did the believing, but God first gave us the inclination to believe, the desire to believe, the ability to believe.Other verses confirm that saving faith is a gift from God. In John 6:65, Jesus said, "No one can come to me unless it has been granted to him by My Father." In Acts 16:14, we read, "The Lord opened (Lydia's) heart to heed the things spoken by Paul." Jesus said regarding some, "You do not believe, because you are not of My sheep" (John 10:26). Compare that with what we read in Acts 13:48: "And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed." Acts 18:27 says, "(Apollos) greatly helped those who had believed through grace." So we must conclude with the apostle Paul, "it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy" (Romans 9:16).
We are humbled by the realization that even our ability to come to Christ in saving faith is a gift based upon the cross of Calvary. At the cross, Christ purchased for His people deliverance from the spirit of unbelief. Through His resurrection, He secured for His people the spiritual life which enables them to savingly believe. When a sinner is converted in response to the preaching of the gospel, it is because Christ has poured out His Holy Spirit upon him to apply to his heart the saving power of Christ's death and resurrection.
You see, the reason you found Jesus is because Jesus first found you. When you were still in spiritual bondage to unbelief, the Holy Spirit applied to your heart the redeeming power of Jesus to deliver you from that bondage. As a result, you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you entered into that personal faith relationship with Jesus which enabled God to proclaim you justified. You found Jesus because Jesus first found you.
We find this same basic lesson in the experience of Nathanael. The reason Nathanael found Jesus is because Jesus had first found Nathanael. The text does not specifically say that Jesus found Nathanael, but there is evidence in the text that God was working in Nathanael's heart before Nathanael found Jesus.
Why did Nathanael believe in Jesus so quickly once he was exposed to Him? There are two possible reasons. One possible reason is that the Holy Spirit regenerated Nathanael's heart as soon as he encountered Jesus and at that moment gave him the ability to see Jesus for who Jesus is. There is another possible reason, and that is that Nathanael was already an old testament saint before He encountered Jesus. In the old testament, God's people had not seen the historical Jesus, but they had seen the Messiah through prophecies and types. They had already been saved through the Holy Spirit working in their hearts in conjunction with the gospel in its old testament form. It was the same gospel. The only difference was that it revealed the coming Messiah dimly through prophecies and types, and the gospel now proclaims the Messiah who has already come and whom we now can see in the clearer light of historical accomplishments.
Now what would be the reaction of an old testament saint who was exposed to the historical Jesus during Jesus' earthly ministry? He would quickly believe. Let me share with you two passages from John's gospel that point to this. The first is John 3:19-21:
"And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God."Christ says that He came into the world as spiritual light, and there were two contrasting reactions to Him in Israel. The unregenerate, here described as those who were practicing evil, hated the light of Christ and would not come to Him in faith. The regenerate, the old testament saints, here described as those who were doing the truth when Christ came into the world, loved light over darkness and came to Jesus.The second passage is John 10:24-27:
Then the Jews surrounded Him and said to Him, "How long do You keep us in doubt? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly." Jesus answered them, "I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father's name, they bear witness of Me. But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me."Here Christ says that when He came to Israel, there were two sorts of sheep in Israel, two types of Jews. There were the unregenerate, here described as those who were not of Christ's sheep, and they did not believe. There were the regenerate, those who were truly and inwardly Christ's sheep. And when they heard the voice of the Messianic Good Shepherd, they recognized His voice and they followed Him in the obedience of faith.Nathanael heard the voice of Jesus, and Nathanael recognized the voice of the Messianic Good Shepherd, and Nathanael followed Jesus. Was this because the Holy Spirit regenerated Nathanael then and there? Or was Nathanael an old testament saint who had been regenerated some time before?
Now when someone today believes the gospel for the first time, we know that the Holy Spirit worked the miracle of regeneration then and there. There are no old testament saints walking around today. But during Jesus' earthly ministry, there were these two possibilities.
I believe the answer in the case of Nathanael is that Nathanael was already an old testament saint at the time he encountered Jesus. I believe that because when Jesus saw Nathanael, Jesus said, "Behold, an Israelite indeed."
Paul would later say in the book of Romans, chapter 2, verses 28 and 29:
For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly ...I believe that when Jesus said to Nathanael, "Behold, an Israelite indeed!", Jesus was saying that Nathanael was an old testament saint, one of those who was a Jew not only outwardly but also inwardly.As an old testament saint, Nathanael already believed in the Messiah of prophecy, and he was anticipating His appearing in history. He loved the light, and as soon as the light came into the world, Nathanael came to the light.
I don't have time today to go into more detail about the experience of Nathanael. There is an Old Testament background to this exchange between Jesus and Nathanael. There is more to this statement, "You are an Israelite indeed in whom there is no guile." We will look at that further next week.
In our passage today, Philip brought Nathanael to Jesus, and Nathanael believed. Beloved, I am bringing you to Jesus today through this sermon. I am exposing you to the Jesus of Scripture. What will your response be? Will you love darkness more than light? Or will you come to the light?
I plead with you to come to the light. Come to Jesus. Receive Him and rest upon Him alone for your salvation. Trust Him to make you right with the Lord God your Maker.
And then after you come to Jesus, give Jesus the praise for what you have done. Yes, you did it, but you couldn't have done it unless Jesus had first worked the miracle of the new birth in your heart. Yes, you found Jesus, but acknowledge that Jesus found you first, and give Him the glory and the praise.