A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on January 17, 2021 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Mark 1:4-11. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A mostly unedited transcript of the sermon follows the jump:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from the Gospel according to St. John, the first chapter:
The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael 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.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” 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.” Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” Jesus answered him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” And he said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
God operates in strange ways. Now, the book of Hebrews tells us that, in olden days, God would speak to his people through the prophets. But now in these latter days he has spoken to us through his Son. And so as we consider the Old Testament text this day, it's fairly clear how God is able to operate. He calls with an audible voice to those who should hear him and, specifically, in this case, Samuel. Samuel was a young boy, given over to work for the Lord in the Tabernacle while Eli and his two Sons were very lazy and evil, and they did not do the work of the Lord. But Samuel was good and he did his work. He stood before the Lord just as it was required of the priests and even though Samuel was not a priest, God still used him in order to bring the word of God to Eli and to all of Israel. That was not a normal way that God would work but it did happen. We see that in other prophets as well. But in the last days, in the latter days, God speaks to us through his Son, which must mean that when Jesus came the latter days began, when Jesus came in our flesh, when he took on our voice box, when he took on our throats, and as he took on the air that we breathe. In these things, Jesus speaks to us and thus we must be in these latter days. So when Jesus is able to look at these men and call them to him as disciples, as Apostles, people who would follow him and then be sent out to take his word into all of the world, this is giving us a new way of God operating.
For a time, God spoke to his people through Jesus bodily, and now he speaks to his people through the word of Jesus faithfully passed down to us through the scriptures. It must have been an amazing thing, though, to have Jesus speak to you in that moment. You may have been waiting all your life to hear the voice of God. I think many of us still are. Haven't we said that to ourselves? Lord, if you would just let me hear you, I would know what to do. Lord, if you would just tell me what to do, I’ll gladly follow you all the days of my life just for an audible voice. I have a friend who's fond of saying if you want to hear the voice of God, read your Bible and if you want to hear the audible voice of God, read it out loud for the voice of God in Jesus Christ comes to you from every page of the scriptures. For Philip and Nathaniel this day, however, the voice of God came to them where they were and that is an amazing thing. After calling his first disciples, John and James and Peter and Andrew, he went on to another place in Galilee and called more men, Philip and Nathaniel.
Philip knew Jesus because well, it seems. He was friends with Peter and Andrew and so, in hearing Jesus call him as a disciple, he got excited. He had been waiting, hoping for this. Indeed, Jesus called him and he couldn't hold it in and he ran over to Nathanael and told him, We have found the Christ, the one we've been waiting for all of our lives, Jesus of Nazareth.
You can almost hear his voice that day. There's something about hearing a voice that tells you exactly what you should be feeling and what you should be thinking. But Nathaniel, hearing Phillips voice, did not get excited. Instead, he had a response that I think is all too common in our day, a response of We are better than these people. Nazareth? Can anything good come out of that backwater, hillbilly, redneck town? Still, he went with Phillip to see this one that Philip was calling the Messiah. And he looked at Jesus and he judged him. This man's a carpenter. This man's nothing more than just a common laborer. This man is nothing special.
And Jesus instead looked at Nathaniel and said, Behold! An Israelite in whom there is no deceit. This is to say, I know what you're thinking, at least nothing is hidden from your mind into the world. You say exactly what's there and nothing else. You tell it how you see it. And the thing is, Nathaniel isn’t wrong. He’s right, isn’t he? Jesus is a carpenter. Jesus is the Son of Joseph. Jesus is nothing more than a common laborer. Jesus is a redneck. Jesus is a hillbilly. Nathaniel knows he’s right.
Wondering at this, he says how do you know that about me? And Jesus said, When Philip called you from a long way off, when you were under the fig tree I saw you. You have to wonder what Nathaniel was doing under that fig tree. We're not given to know whether he was taking a little nap, whether he was working on something, whether he was sinning in some way. Obviously, it was important enough that Nathaniel knew that, if Jesus had seen this, that there must be something more.
And it's true. Though Jesus is the redneck hillbilly of Nazareth, He's the Son of God. And Nathaniel realizes this immediately and, because nothing stops his tongue and his mind, he speaks out immediately the truth. Rabbi, teacher you are the Son of God. You are the one we've been waiting for. You are the king of Israel. And in Nathaniel there's no deceit. So what he says must be true.
Jesus doesn't focus on that, does he? He doesn't say. Oh, you're right. Let's talk about what my rule and my reign will look like, let's talk about some preconceived notions that you may have, Nathaniel. You may think that I come to cast out the Romans, but indeed I come to bring God's kingdom through my death and resurrection. He doesn't say that exactly. Instead, he says, Do you believe because I did this little thing and I saw what you were doing? I'm telling you, you're going to see greater things than this. Indeed you will see the heavens opened and the angels descending and ascending upon the Son of Man. God is doing a new thing.
If you remember back to the book of Genesis, if you remember Jacob, who's out in the wilderness, he grows tired and he lays down a rock and he falls asleep on it. In his sleep, he has a dream of a ladder coming down out of heaven and watching the angels go up and down upon that ladder. Many people look at that and they have no idea what that dream is supposed to be about except to know that angels at least are here. But Jesus here is saying I am the ladder. I am the way that the angels ascend and descend upon this earth. I am the way that they come down and minister to you in all that they need to do. I am the way that the message of God gets to you. Why this last one? Because the word angel in Greek is angelus and it means messenger, one who brings the message of God to the people, one who brings the voice of God, the word of God.
Indeed, in a way you can say all of the pastors that you've had in your life have been angels. Certainly not in that we are these spiritual beings that we know worship God in his Temple up in heaven, the ones with the six wings, the ones with the eyes all over their body, the ones with the four faces on their head. We're not those kind of angels. We’re the messengers, bringing the word of God to you that you may hear the voice of your Lord calling to you today, come and follow me.
We are the messengers, and, in a real way, Jesus is the way that we bring that message. The scriptures also say feet of those who bring the message the good news of God in Christ are beautiful, and it’s true, for we ascend and descend upon our Lord and His work. In this way, we are able to bring you what you need.
God is working in a new way. He doesn't speak out of the heavens. He doesn't speak in a way that's confusing, like he did with Samuel. Did you know Samuel didn't understand what was going on? Samuel hadn't heard the voice of God. In fact, we can say that the majority of people throughout the history of the world have never heard the voice of God. Samuel had no idea what was going on and yet Eli, even in his unfaithfulness, told him listen, listen and do what the voice tells you to do. And it is the same way now, today, not that we hear the voice of God coming out of the heavens, but then we hear the voice of God coming out of his word, out of the scriptures. We sit here and we think, Alright. Well, God, if you want to tell me something then I'll listen to it.
God is telling you something today. He is telling you that he is greater than all things. He is the one that we worship. He is the one we adore. He is the one who gives us the commands that we follow. This last week and a half, we’ve seen how people get a different religion in their heart, a religion of politics or religion of following after cult-like leaders, whether they be on the conservative side or the the liberal side. Either way, we see how people get it in their heart and replace these things with God. They hear the voice of their God and it calls them to sacrifice. It calls them to follow them and what happens? The gods of this world call you to shed your own blood to lay down your life for their sake.
But the god of the scriptures, the god that truly is in the heart man, calls to you and says, I have sent my Son to shed his blood you do not need to shed it any longer. We follow after the gods of our own hearts. We follow after the gods of our own making because we're not hearing the voice of God. Hear the voice of God today. Repent of your sin and be forgiven. God knows what you're doing. If he saw Nathanael under the fig tree, guess what? He can look into your heart and he sees what you do and what you think and what you say. We should be ashamed.
I kind of have a feeling that Nathaniel was doing something under that fig tree that he shouldn't have been. It's just a feeling. And I think this because many other places in the scriptures, when God in Jesus Christ looks at somebody, he knows their sin but he doesn't just leave them there. He doesn't just say you're a great sinner, have fun in hell.
If indeed you do despair over your sin as so many who did were brought to Jesus, repent of your sin, apologize to God, seek his forgiveness and it shall be found in Jesus for you. This is the way that God works today. He calls out with the message of John the Baptizer, Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. And it is at hand in the person of Jesus. Jesus is all of God, he is the voice of God, he is the reign of God, he is the life and the light of God. He calls to you repent and trust in him. Repent and find the forgiveness of your sins. Repent and find life everlasting. This is what the voice of God is always calling.
Did you notice Eli's response when he heard the word of God from Samuel? When God said, I will destroy Eli and his sons, for they are wicked and evil, having blasphemed me, Eli's response was not to say, I'm a great sinner. Is there any hope for me? What salvation it can I find now? No, instead, his response was, It's God. Let him do whatever he wants to do.
For us today, let us not find ourselves in the place of this wicked Eli, but find ourselves in the place of Samuel, in the place of Philip, in the place of Nathaniel, and say, Speak, O Lord, your servant listens. And what he speaks here our is to call you to repentance and the forgiveness of sins. Then, you, when having been forgiven, God instructs you in his ways. He calls you to lay down your lives to sin and take up the new life that you have in Jesus Christ. Hear the voice of God this day, my friends, for he is calling to you. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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