Voice of the Nazarene 4-28-24

I'm coming to you from North Central Ohio, we share with you the voice of the Nazarene, a week by week venture into the Word of God sponsored by the Bucyrus, Ohio Church of the Nazarene, we join our Pastor Reverend Ray Lasalle and the voice of the Nazarene.

John chapter one verse 45, Philip findeth Nathaniel, and saith, unto him, We have found him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph, Nathaniel saith, or said unto him, can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith to him, Come and see.

Jesus saw Nathaniel coming to him and said of him, Behold, an Israelite indeed in whom is no Gowler, no deceit. Nathaniel said unto him, whence knowest thou me? And Jesus answered and said unto him, before that, Philip call the when that was under the fig tree I saw you I saw thee. Nathaniel answered and said unto him, Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God, thou art the king of Israel. Jesus answered and said unto him, because I said unto thee, I saw the under the fig tree believest thou, thou shall see greater things than these. And he said unto him, verily, verily I say unto you, hereafter, ye shall see heaven open to the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. Let's talk about for a few minutes this fella by the name of Nathaniel, a man without any deceit, the man without guile. Good to be around people who are just kind of out and open and aboveboard and transparent. He was one of those kind of guys. I don't know if I can explain what kind of guy I am. But I'm the kind of guy that's a little bit methodical if I go to a restaurant I don't need a menu already know what I want before I got there. I'm not going to take a chance on something else. My wife always takes a chance on something else and then sits and looks at my food.

And finally I share Can you imagine how big I'd be if I didn't share?

Then she gives me hers to eat. I go to the stores to shop and I already know what I want. I'm not there to shop. Forget that stuff. Nathaniel here means gift of God. I believe that Nathaniel Bartholomew, that was his surname. Anytime you're reading through divine read, and you come across either one of these names, it's the same guy. And I believe there's some wonderful lessons here in the life of Nathaniel Bartholomew, even leadership lessons, always kind of look at things through leadership perspective. I walk into a business and if things are crumbling and falling apart and seem to be unorganized, I realize there's a leadership problem. Everything rises or it falls on leadership. And organizations, they don't grow around the leader, they grow under the leader. And if you're going to raise an organization, you got to lift the leader, it rises, it falls on leaders. And these 12 apostles are so interesting in our study. And I want to look today at Nathaniel four simple things that I believe Nathaniel teaches us because wonderful lessons can be taught from these 12 apostles that lived more than 2000 years ago. Not alot said you gotta catch what transpires in divine writ. God pulls the curtain back for a moment, spotlights them.

Some are almost instant and you don't see him again, but wonderful lessons. The first lesson that I got this last week in looking at Nathaniel's life, was the importance of Scripture.

If you don't get anything else, get the little outline this morning. The importance of the Word of God. Look at verse 45, Philip find Nathaniel and it says unto him, Nate, you know, the one that we've been reading about back there in the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch, Moses had written the one that we've been studying about all through those prophets. Well, guess what? He's here. He's arrived. There are 300 fulfilled prophecies. And it all points to Jesus over here, the son of Joseph, the carpenters boy, it's him. He's finally showed up. And they found him because they found him in the Word of God. That's how they found him. That's how you're going to find him. And can I make a couple real quick observations? Observation number one, you can't become a believer without the Bible. Romans 10:17, So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word. You either read it in the Bible, or somebody shared with you the Word of God, and you heard it, or you saw it. And parents if you want your children to come to faith, oh, you say, well, not much you can do Oh, yes, there is. That from a child thou know The Holy Scriptures which are able to make the wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Jesus Christ. That second Timothy chapter three, verse 15.

Romans 10:17

So if you want your children to come to faith, get them into the word. Get them to memorizing Scripture, if there's a program in the local church that will help with that, get involved with it, get your children involved, don't think their accidentally gonna learn the word of God, when you got them out letting them do something else. Get them into the children's ministry, into the youth ministry, into a Bible study, get them into Sunday school, per se. If you want your children to come to faith in Christ, let me challenge you don't let the church be a possibilit, make it a priority.

So you can't really become a believer without the Bible. And second thing that I want you to understand, you can't live a victorious Christian life without the Word of God.

Somebody said, I want to be a victorious Christian, but I'm just not too much into the Bible. That's an oxymoron.

That's something like a moron.

But I didn't say it. You heard it elsewhere. You can't be a victorious Christian and not be into the Word of God. Let me remind you of something. You might be here today and you say, Well, I've got problems in my life. How many of you would say I've got a problem in my life?

Seated right next to me. I's a bad boy, I've done that before.

I've got problems, you got problems, all God's children have got problems. Why? Because we're in a battle. We're in a spiritual warfare. The devil is the god of this world, according to the second Corinthians chapter four, verse four. And so we're finding it, incidentally if you're not running into the devil very much, chances are you're both going in the same direction. Now, what is the Bible tell us in Ephesians, six, verse 17, taking the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Get the sword out, we're in a battle and our sword is what?

The Word of God. Think of this.

Jesus himself was in the battle once, and it's recorded back there in that fourth chapter.

And the devil came against Him there in that wilderness, attacked him it was a three pronged attacked. And what did Jesus do? What was his weapon, his weapon was the Word of God, and He began to quote, Deuteronomy. Three times he did that. This is all I'm going to say. The scripture that you memorize will be the scripture that you will utilize. Hard to use the Scripture if you don't have any in your head, or in your heart. And so let's get the word of God, allow it to get into a heart and life. Somebody said, Well, I've got a plan. I'm gonna read the Bible through all this year, it's really gonna make me become a great giant Christian. That's good. I'm for it. Start reading. The years about half over so you're really better start reading. You better double up. But here's what I'd like to say to you. If it took them 1500 years to write the word of God. Why do you think you got to read it all through in one. I think it's a whole lot more important to have the Scripture going through you than you going through it. You'd be better off to take a little bit of time and literally let the word of God begin to saturate and soak into your heart and into your mind and into your psyche until you become the living Word of God. And so let it get into you. And here's what I know about men. Do you realize that eight out of 10 religious books sold in America are purchased by women. Men aren't readers much. So whether you do it by audio are by reading or somebody else reading to you, at least start. If it is nothing more than a one page devotional start reading the Word of God, get it into us. And us into it.

There's a little passage I read the other day that kind of made me puzzled. It was Joshua five two, at that time the Lord said unto Joshua, make the sharp knives, circumcise again the children of Israel the second time. What is circumcision? It is cutting the flesh away, cutting the flesh away, and they only thing that can cut away the flesh, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye is the Word of God in our lives. The only thing to cut it loose from your life, and from my life is the Word of God. You say, Pastor, I'm not struggling? Maybe not.

But I'm smart enough to know that 25% of the men in America are struggling with internet pornography. That's one out of every four. So don't tell me there aren't some struggling with it. Many are struggling.

And I want to say something, the only thing that will cut away the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, is the Word of God.

Here's what I want to say about the Word of God, the Word of God will keep you from sin and sin will keep you out of the Word of God. So I learned from old Nate, the importance of Scripture, the importance of Scripture. Also, I learned the issue of self esteem. What's interesting, Philip said, Nate, we found him.

Nathaniel said, Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? What a question. Can any good thing come out of that family? Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?

You say, Well, Pastor, they had a prejudice there with the Galileans that seemed to also be coming out of Nazareth. Perhaps.

But I found something interesting this week, John 21, Nathaniel was from Canaan. You remember that first miracle that Jesus performed was in Cana of Galilee, turning water into wine. That's what the old drunk said when the cop pulled him over. And he said, What's in that bottle? And the cop smelled it and said it's wine. He said, Jesus did it again. Don't you pull that off. He was from Canaan. Canaan and Nazareth were only five miles apart. And when I studied about Canaan, it was even more poor and lowly village, then Nazareth. It was one of the worst little villages. And they're close together. And if you remember, it was in Nazareth, Matthew

58, that Jesus did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief. No problem with him that he was Jesus. And he did not many works there the place because of the people there are unbelievers. And what was it they said? They said, Is this not the carpenter's son?

What was that a put down? We know him, we know him so well, but don't even know him. And he had said, there can't be any good thing come out of Nazareth, because He's from Nazareth he's one of us. Just one of us. And they weren't rejecting Him. They were rejecting themselves. They were saying he really can't be any good because he's just like, us. Here we are today. Many of us in that same condition. Can't be any good because of my past.

Pastor, you're wasting your time on me I've got a past. I'll never be any good because of my parents, everybody knows that I had no good parents. I'm of no good stock. Everybody knows I'll never do much, I'm overweight. I can't seem to shake the weight.

Everybody knows that I have no education. I'll never amount to anything. Everybody knows I've got this disorder going and struggle that I have. And everybody knows about my addictions. And I can't be any good because of all the allegations. I can't be any good because of failures. And because of a mess ups. I'm just a prisoner of my past. I'm just from Nazareth. I just made another mess up. I just made another grievious mistake.

Nothing good is gonna come out of my life or out of Nazareth.

But I believe there's a message here. Don't miss the message. He said no good thing can come out of Nazareth. But Philip said, Hey, don't stay where your at.

Don't keep moaning and groaning.

Don't be like the grape, the elephant stepped on it, let our little wine. Hey, come and see.

You need to get out of that mess and leave your past and you need for yourself come and see.

Another writer said come and taste and see that the Lord is good. And I want to say to people today, no matter what happened in your past, you don't have to be a prisoner to it.

Jesus is saying, Come and see, I've got a great plan for you.

Your past doesn't have to determine your future. God is saying I love you no matter what, there's nothing you can do to make God quit loving you because you had nothing to do with the fact that God did love you. So don't mess with God. God loves us way before our first mistake. So I learned the importance of scripture from this guy named Nathaniel. I learned from the issue of his self esteem that he struggled.

And then suddenly we have the intervention of the Savior, Nathaniel comes to Jesus.

Here's the background Philip said we've found him. Nathaniel what does he do? He's spending his time hiding under the fig tree, there are a lot of folks under the fig tree. You wonder if you can get anybody else under there. And in biblical times, the fig tree grew about 15 feet high. But the branches would go 20 feet out. And so it looked more than double the size that way then it was that way.

And those limbs would go so far out they begin to droop down and when they were cooking in the houses and it was hot, arid, desert country, it would get so hot in the house, they would go out of the house, and to get out of the sun they would get under a fig tree. And those branches would hide them and they would try to cool off down under the fig tree. And Nathaniel said whence knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto him, before that Philip called thee, when thou was under the fig tree, I saw thee. When nobody else could see. I saw, you know the eyes of the Lord everywhere beholding the evil of the good.

God sees when you feel alone, and nobody else is around God is nearby and God sees. And Nathaniel said, Hey, wait, my friend, Philip said in verse 45, that you're the son of Joseph.

But he said, You know what? I think you're a whole lot more than that. I believe you're the Son of God. And I want you to know something, if you have a family member that you're concerned about. The great Son of God sees them to. You're here and you're so worried about them, it's hard for you to get into service and get into worship. God sees that situation, that struggle, those hurts. Nobody else can get near him. God can, when they're hiding out God can hide with them.

under the fig tree. When it comes to our children, I've got two. My wife had two also, that made a total of two.

For you mathematicians.

Sometimes it seemed like they were more than two. And when it comes to raising children, may I just say, and I say this very cautiously. You have to let them go. The Bible said to train them up in the way they should go.

They're not to stay forever.

They're to go. And you've got to do your best in that little time, that little slot that you have to train them. That little time you have them under your roof that little bit because the day will come on, they'll not stay they're going to go. But the good news is God can go after them. That's the good news. He can reach them when we can't reach them. He can put people in their life that can maybe influence them, where if we got on the phone and tried to say something they would reject it. Even when I can't see it you're working. Even when I can't feel it, you're working.

You never stop you never stop working the song writer said.

And then you have the interaction of the supernatural here in verse 50. Jesus answered and said unto him because I said unto thee, I saw the under the fig tree, Is that the reason you believe? Can I just say, as a pastor, I don't care what it was that brought you to Jesus Christ. I'm just so glad you're on your way. I don't know what your fig tree experience might have been. I don't know what it was that caught your attention and stopped you in your tracks.

And it could have been cancer, it could have been the death of a child, it could have been in a tragic accident. I don't know.

I'm just glad that God's got our attention. That's what I'm glad for. God uses a variety of things to bring us to himself.

So don't give up on anybody else either. Because God didn't give up on you. And God is still at work. And he said, because I believeth thou shall see greater things then these. Now look at the introduction of the supernatural. Verse 51, he is saith unto him, Verily, verily I say to you, hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. Now this is a whole lot bigger than this preacher. And it may be a whole lot bigger than you've ever seen, I think is a whole lot bigger than theologians can get their brains around. For he said, angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. Now get this, there was a man in the Bible. And it's back in Genesis 28, his name was Jacob. Jacob was on the run from his brother, he's on the run from God, he's quite a deceiver, quite a guy. And somewhere out there, God sent an angel that wrestled with him. And he had a dream one night with his head using a rock for a pillow, he had a dream of a ladder that went from earth to heaven. And interestingly enough, he saw angels going, ascending their way up into the heavens and angels descending down to earth, back and forth, up and down the ladder. But the writer here said, Did you catch it? Not a ladder, but Jesus is saying, I am the ladder. You catch it, angels of God ascending and descending up on the Son of God.

He said, I'm the ladder. He's everything. That's why God told Moses I am that I am. I'm the bread of life. I'm the water to drink. I'm the door that you get in, I am the light of the world.

He's the great ladder. Our only way to God is through Jesus Christ, that ladder. You take the golden texts of the Bible, the first 12 words is God reaching down the last 12 words is man reaching up for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten, that's God reaching down to match that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life. There's one word that connects him up. It's the ladder, the Son, the Son of God connects God reaching down with man reaching up, he's the connecting ladder. God is saying here through this divine writer, that angels are descending up and down up on the Son of Man, heaven is coming down the ladder, heaven on Earth, we need a little heaven, don't we? You need a little heaven in your home. Some of you right now fighting such monstrosity battles in your mind and in your health, that you'd do anything to have a little heaven to touch your body and touch your life.

Well, there's a little verse, I'm done. I imagine you wished I hadn't thought about this verse.

8, Jesus Christ. Can you quote it? The same yesterday, and to day and for ever. Simple verse innit?

Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to day and for ever.

Hey, congregation, I hope you realize this. We don't have any problem with yesterday, do we?

You can believe God for yesterday. It's in the past.

It's over anyway. You believe that Moses stretched forth that rod and God jumped out of the other end and the Red Sea rolled back. You don't have any problem with that do you? You believe that? You don't have any problem believing that Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego those three Hebrew boys were cast into the fiery furnace. And one like the Son of God stepped in there with them.

And they came out without even the smell of smoke. Jesus Christ the same yesterday. You don't have any trouble believing that God rained manna down from heaven on Earth for 40 years and fed 3 million Israelites. You don't have any trouble believing that. They marched around the walls of Jericho over and over and over and the walls fell. We take the Bible and we read those things and we say yes, yes, yes.

Did you ever process Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever? We don't have any problem with the forever. While we're gathered here, we recognize the fact that if Jesus wanted to, at any moment, suddenly the Eastern skies could part and Jesus comes strolling out of the clouds, to receive us back to heaven. The forevers. We have no problem believing there will be a day that mortality will put on inmortality. We have no problem of believing that we'll receive a new glorified body without any heart problems and eye problems and hearing aid problems and so forth. The forevers. We believe one day, the angel is going to step out of the great trumpet, and there'll be a tude and we'll scoot. Fact ofmatter if you're a Christian, you believe those things. You're not looking for an undertaker, you're looking for the upper taker. If you're like my dad, he didn't look for a hole in the ground, he looked for a hole in the sky. I'm not spending my time looking for the Antichrist, I'm looking for Jesus Christ. We believe that when he comes back, we'll stand before the great boss of the universe and give an account and they're gonna happen in a twinkling of an eye. But wait, Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and out there and through the forevers. This is what I learned about us. We don't have a problem with yesterday. And we don't have a problem with the forevers. Our problems with to day, in our struggles where we're at now. And I want to report to you that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, but he's the same today and tomorrow and forever. And just as he did it yesterday, and he'll do throughout the forevers. He will do it today. There's nothing that God can't do. David in his discouragement set down on the backside of a mountain, and he wrote, When I consider the heavens and the work of thy hands, and that you made us and your image, I guess, Lord, you must care about us. Jesus was saying to Nathaniel, Nate, as wonderful as you think it is, it's just the beginning of what I can do for it's no secret.

What God can do. I don't know about you but I sat in my office this morning, and I said, God, I'm claiming some miracles for my people. There'll be people sitting out in the audience this morning that needed a divine touch. They need a little heaven to come to Earth. They need to take heaven home because they didn't bring heaven with them.

Other things were going on in their life, would you just be the same to us today as you were to our forefathers in the yesterday's, and that you'll be out there and the tomorrow's. Be God to us today. The introduction of the supernatural, Gods here. God wants to go home with you today.

You don't have to be struggling with some of these things that you struggle with. God can give you victory over those overwhelming desires that you wrestle with, those addictions, God can break habits. And God can give us a future that gives us peace, and not always a struggle. God can help us to live holy lives. Not always fighting temptation, every moment of our being from the time we get up to when we lay our head on the pillow and can't sleep at night. He wants you to be God today. Let him be your God right in the now.

Thanks for being a part of the voice of the Nazarene. Visit us every Sunday at 9am with BNC's Pastor Ray LaSalle. For more information regarding BNC visit Bucyrus nazarene.org.