The Obscure Made Known

Order of Service

• Announcements
• Opening Hymn — Crown Him with Many Crowns
• Call to Worship — Revelation 4:6-11
• Hymn — Crown Him with Many Crowns
• Prayer of Invocation
• Corporate Confession of Sin — Isaiah 53
• Assurance of Pardon — Romans 8:1-2
• Scripture Reading — John 6:52-59
• Hymn — Take My Life and Let It Be
• Pastoral Prayer
• Offering
• Prayer of Preparation
• Hymn — My Jesus, I Love Thee
• Sermon
• Prayer
• Lord's Supper — Matthew 26:26-29
• Hymn — Rock of Ages
• Benediction

---

Sermon Title: The Obscure Made Known

Scripture: John 1:43-51

I. The Obscure Becomes Known Through Pursuit

A. Jesus pursues Philip directly, unlike Andrew, Peter, and Nathanael who are led to Christ by others

1. Philip is from Bethsaida, a city condemned by Jesus in Matthew 11 and Luke 10:13-14 for rejecting the gospel despite witnessing miracles
2. Yet Andrew, Peter, and Philip are called out of wicked Bethsaida — an example of remnant theology

B. Remnant theology runs throughout Scripture

1. God pursues Noah amidst a world ripe for judgment
2. God pursues Abraham out of idolatrous Ur of the Chaldeans
3. God pursues Moses out of Egypt, Daniel out of exiled Israel, Philip out of condemned Bethsaida
4. Nathanael is called "a true Israelite" (John 1:47) — true Israel embraces Messiah, as Paul describes in Romans 2

C. Application: Eternal security rests not on majority opinion or polling data, but on the pursuing grace of God — the "Hound of Heaven" who will never let his people go

II. The Obscure Becomes Known Through Seeing

A. Nathanael's skepticism — "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" (John 1:46)

1. Nazareth carried a deeply negative cultural and moral connotation in first-century Jewish society
2. Despite his skepticism, Nathanael accepts Philip's invitation to "come and see" and goes to Jesus himself

B. Jesus demonstrates omniscience and omnipresence — incommunicable attributes of God

1. Jesus does not merely identify Nathanael by name, but perceives his inner character: "an Israelite in whom there is no deceit"
2. Jesus saw Nathanael under the fig tree before Philip called him (John 1:48)
3. The fig tree was the traditional place of Jewish private devotion and prayer; Nathanael, likely a disciple of John the Baptist, was probably praying for the coming of Messiah

C. Application: God's omnipresence should both sober and comfort believers

1. Christ sees all things — nothing is hidden from him
2. When a believer prays in secret, Christ sees and responds — omnipresence is a source of assurance, not only of accountability

III. The Obscure Becomes Known Through Revelation

A. Old Covenant revelation of Messiah

1. Philip declares: "We have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote" (John 1:45) — "the law and the prophets" is shorthand for the whole Old Testament
2. The entire Old Testament points forward in anticipation to Jesus Christ; the New Testament is its fulfillment

B. New Covenant revelation of Messiah — John 1:51

1. The "you" in verse 51 is plural in Greek — Jesus addresses all his disciples, not Nathanael alone
2. "Heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man" alludes to Jacob's Ladder in Genesis 28
3. Jacob declared the place "Bethel" — the house of God, the gate of heaven (Genesis 28:17)
4. Jesus presents himself as the new Bethel — the ladder, the gate of heaven, the one who opens heaven and keeps it open (Greek perfect tense)
5. This refers not to a single future event but to Christ's entire ministry: his life, death, resurrection, and ascension

C. Application: We live in an age of obscurity, yet Scripture opens heaven to the eyes of faith

1. The psalmist in Psalm 73 saw the wicked prospering — so do we today
2. When we open Scripture and behold Christ, heaven itself is opened to us
3. The Lord's Supper is a "porthole to heaven" — the broken body and shed blood of Christ signal the torn veil and the opened Holy of Holies, as described in Hebrews
4. The table is training ground for faith, preparing us for the day we behold Christ face to face