Advanced Level, Block 9—Jesus’ Closest Followers
Week 85
Philip and Nathanael—Called to Follow Jesus
Point to Emphasize: We all need to be brought to Him and not rely on mere knowledge.
Reference Reading: John 1:43-51, footnotes 451, 513
Memory Verse: I had heard of You by the hearing of the ear, / But now my eye has seen You… (Job 42:5)
Sample Story
What’s a biography? Right, a biography is a written history of a person’s life. We read a biography to get to know about a person. For example, if you want to learn about Abraham Lincoln, you should read a biography about him. But, what would be better, to read the biography of Abraham Lincoln or to meet Abraham Lincoln in person? Meeting Abraham Lincoln in person would be so much better than reading a book about him! Why? Because you could spend time with him, ask all the questions you want, and hear him speak.
You may be wondering why I am talking about this, and the reason is that today I want to tell you a story about what happened to two of Jesus’ close followers, Philip and Nathanael. Both of them had read about Jesus in the writings of Moses and the writings of the prophets. But now they had the opportunity to meet Jesus in person.
In the story, Jesus was on His way into a city called Galilee, where He found Philip. Jesus asked him to follow Him. When Jesus called Philip to follow Him, Philip realized that this person was Jesus, the One written about in the law and the prophets. Philip had read about Him and he knew Jesus was coming. Philip went and found Nathanael who was sitting under a tree and said to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, wrote, Jesus, the son of Joseph, from Nazareth” (John 1:45). What do you think of what Philip said to Nathanael? [Let them discuss. Point out that Jesus was not the son of Joseph and that he was not born in Nazareth. Philip gave Nathanael inaccurate information about Jesus.] Just like you, Nathanael knew that the information Philip had given him about Jesus was wrong. Nathanael knew that the One of whom Moses spoke of would not be born in Nazareth, but in Bethlehem. Here Nathanael is at a crucial point. Will his “knowing it all” cause him to just continue to sit under that tree? [Let them answer.] Probably Nathanael’s “knowing it all” would have caused him to remain sitting under that tree. But then Philip said, “Come and see!” So he did. He went and met the One that Philip had told him about.
I’ll tell you one of my stories where I was also at that crucial point where I had to decide whether or not to rely solely on my knowledge. I was in the sixth grade. I had an English teacher who did not speak English well. He had terrible pronunciation and didn’t like to be corrected. I thought he was not qualified to teach. I knew more English than he did. With the thought that “I know more than him,” I lost interest in his class and tuned him out. While I was in the class and he was talking, I would just ignore what he was saying and start drawing in my notebook, pretending to take notes. One day, we had a test and I had no notes, but I told myself I didn’t even need to study because I was sure I knew it all. Well, I failed the test. Even the teacher was surprised that I scored so low. He called me to his desk and I was terrified. To my surprise, he told me, “I am not going to send this test home for your parents to sign. I am going to give you another chance to take it again.” I couldn’t believe it! The teacher, who I thought was so boring and was not even qualified to teach me, cared for me as a student and gave me a second chance! From that day on, I surely paid more attention. I realized that I did not really “know it all” like I thought. [Storyteller, insert a personal story in which you relied on knowledge that resulted in a loss.]
We are all like this, aren’t we? Maybe even this week you had the thought, “I know this already”, “I’ve heard this before”. What examples can you share with us? [Let them tell you about their experiences.] When we have this thought we close ourselves off from listening to what is being said and there is a kind of “hardness” inside.
Nathanael did not stay sitting under the tree. He went to meet Jesus. Actually, Jesus saw Nathanael coming and recognized him and told him, “Before Philip called you, while you were under the fig tree, I saw you”. Jesus had a heart for Nathanael and He spoke to him from the Scriptures something that Nathanael had read. When the Lord Jesus’ spoke, Nathanael finally understood what he had read. With this, we see that there is a BIG difference between staying under a tree with the knowledge you have and being brought to Jesus and listening to Him speak.
Nathanael could have really missed out on meeting Jesus personally because he thought he already knew about Him. You could easily find yourself in the same situation. You may think that you know a lot about Jesus. So you can go through the motions of listening to the sixth-grade gospel lessons, getting baptized, and going to young people’s meetings because you “know it all” already. OR, you can be someone who realizes that you don’t “know it all” and when the time comes, you can meet Jesus personally and discover who He really is.