JESUS CAME OUT OF NAZARETH - NOW ITS TIME FOR HIS CHURCH

I was recently pondering about how I saw things when I was first 'born again' and became a Christian. This happened in 1995 after a radical encounter with Jesus after the death of my grandmother. As a young christian I began to write down and journal what the Holy Spirit was speaking to me... today I was reminded of an article I wrote almost 10 years ago and the message I believe is still the same.......

JESUS CAME OUT OF NAZARETH TO SAVE THE LOST

NOW ITS TIME FOR HIS CHURCH

1) When Phillip found Nathanael, he had been actively searching for him to tell 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.” (John1v45). So Phillip obviously felt that he had something worth sharing.

2) When Nathanael heard the message, it wasn’t the fact that Jesus was the son of Joseph that troubled Nathanael, but it was more the fact that he had come out of Nazareth.

“Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked (v46).  Nathanael wasn’t taking offence at Jesus, as the people of Nazareth themselves did when they realized Jesus was ‘only the carpenter’ (Mark 6v3). He was however, questioning whether anything good could come out of Nazareth. He asked not with the heart of a Pharisee that would try to undermine Jesus, but he asked with a desire to get a truthful answer, he hadn’t already decided the answer in his heart, this wasn’t a trap, this really was a question.

We know this because Jesus himself later said “Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false.” v47.  Phillip also recognised Nathanaels sincere heart when he invited him to “come and see”v46.

Nathanael was so amazed Jesus knew him, he then wanted to know “How do you know me?”v48. Jesus’ simple reply impacted Nathanael so much that he became one of Jesus’ first disciples.

What was it in the words Jesus spoke

that touched Nathanaels heart?

It was the words “I saw you….before Phillip called you”v48. Similarly when the Lord called Jeremiah he said to him “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart……”Jeremiah(1v5). There was something reassuring for both Jeremiah and Nathanael to know all that was happening wasn’t a fluke! The Lord knew everything about them.

 When we come to Jesus with a pure heart we are open to receive the answer whether we like the answer or not. This is made more evident when we read about the Samaritan Women in John 4v39. She stated “He (Jesus) told me everything I ever did” This ‘telling’ was the raw exposure of the sin in her life, but once again she didn’t take offence or become offended she rushed off to tell the people in the town that Jesus knew all about her sin!

This woman was so amazed at Jesus she didn’t focus on the sin, but she focused on the Truth and his name was Jesus..... 
   Everything else paled into insignificance, all this woman could think of doing was to get to the town to tell them she had found the Truth….and the towns people were so amazed that they believed initially “because of the woman’s testimony”v39 and later “because of His(Jesus) words many more became believers”v41 In all these instances the fact that Jesus knew them resulted in them taking up the call God had placed on their lives(disciple/prophet/evangelist).

God is looking for the ‘Philips’

Before Nathanael could come to the place of asking, he had to be given the opportunity to “come and see”.  In the psalms 34v8 we are told to ‘taste and see that the Lord is good’ Hebrews (6v4) tells of having tasted the heavenly gift and of having tasted the goodness of the word of God. Also before Phillip could invite Nathanael to ‘come and see’ he had to ‘go and find’ him!

This going, finding and telling seems to be quite a simple, even successful concept that we, the church will do well to grasp. We can pray until the cows come home, but its not cows were waiting for its people! I’m quite convinced that if Jesus and his disciples had to actively go out and find the people we must go too.

God wants the Phillips in the church today to seek out the lost and bring them to him. It’s a prototype from the calling of the first disciples. If it was necessary for Jesus 2000 years ago, I’m quite sure it’s necessary today.  

Go! is the great commission, not

“leave them alone,

and they’ll come home,

wagging their tails behind them”

The new disciples immediately went out to - Find - Tell - Recruit

The new disciples didn’t have a Phd in theology yet they were leading souls to Jesus, some on the very same day they began to follow him! Their excitement was so great they were off to tell their closest friends and family all they knew about Jesus. They didn’t know a great deal because they’d only just met him, but that didn’t stop them telling what they did know.

 Another point to remember is…it worked!

We can read and prepare as much as we like but if it doesn’t come from the heart, forget it. These new recruits were fresh and ready and that was the most important factor. Jesus didn’t say, “ Now hang on a few years until I’ve taught you how to address the crowd, preach a decent sermon on the Mount and debate with the Pharisees, he just said….Gonn’ gett’m Starsky…(Philip!), and that’s all they needed to hear, they had on the job training, college wasn’t an option.

‘The Holy Spirit Recruitment Agency’

John Chapter One is an amazing testimony to the recruiting potential of new recruits/disciples.

Day 1 - Jesus is Baptised with the Holy Spirit.

Day 2 (the next day v35)  John stated “Look the lamb of God”v36,

‘When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus’.v37

Its amazing that John himself only realized Jesus was the Lamb of God because God told him ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is He who will baptise with the Holy Spirit.’v33. Jesus was John the Baptists cousin, yet he had no special privileges, Jesus was revealed to him by the power of the Holy Spirit (the dove) the same as all believers. I expect John was one of the most shocked of all because until this point in his life, his cousin was just a carpenter from Nazareth.

When he realised He was the Saviour of the World, he saw Jesus for who God intended him to be. Just like when we are Born again, that’s the point when the world will start to see us as God intended us to be (some will love it ‘John the Baptist’ some will hate it ‘the Pharisees’)

Andrew heard what John had said, and followed Jesus.

The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him “ we have found the Messiah”(that is, the Christ). And they brought him to Jesus(v41)

Day 3 (the next day v43)

Jesus….Finding Philip, he said to him “Follow me”(v43)

Philip 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 (v45)

What is the Nazareth in your life?

Past History

For some it may be a past history that you allow yourself (or others!) to hold onto. We can always rely on those who have been life long ‘friends’ to point out our weak points, past failures etc. especially those who are content to stay as they are. This can keep you in bondage if you continue to believe the past and even worse live there for that matter!

 Jesus loves us just as we are, but he loves us so much he does not want to leave us that way. He will give us every opportunity to move out of our past and into all he has for us, ultimately for the benefit and extension of his kingdom, he’s waiting for our response.

Family

Maybe you were not born with a ‘silver spoon in your mouth’, maybe a family history of crime, abuse, or even no known blood family at all, is the Nazareth you need to leave behind?  Maybe rejection from those you trusted has caused you to slip back into ‘old ways’ but through it all you know deep is calling to deep “come out” its time to move on.

Regrets

Maybe you have become weary at doing good, had dreams and hopes crushed or seen such little or no fruit for your labour that now your hope has become deferred.

Proverbs 13 v 12 says that ‘Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life’

Whatever your Nazareth, Fix your eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ, He came out of Nazareth and walked a perfect walk and still the world and the Pharisees hated and rejected him. Yet he continued to walk with the Father and did His will. He did not remain in Nazareth, indeed, he knew he could not. We read in Luke 19 v 10 ‘For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost’.

So the choice is ours, both personally and as the body of Christ. Will we take up the cross and ‘Go’ and walk hand in hand with Jesus out of Nazareth and take his marvellous light so that we can call on the lost to ‘ come and taste and see’ as we have already done ourselves?

Every blessing in Christ Jesus

Claire (Newport, South Wales, UK)

29 September 2001