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More Disciples Follow the Lamb of God (John 1:43-51)

Philip was from Bethsaida, in Galilee. Jesus found him and called him, and Philip found Nathanael. Nathanael said, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" which is basically saying Nazareth is the hick town where nobody visits, and nobody admits to being from there.

Notice that Philip answered in the same way that Jesus did, when they asked him where he was staying. Nathanael was given that same spiritual invitation as the first ones had received. When we give each other that same spiritual invitation--whether to go deeper, or to know Jesus for the first time--it is Jesus who is actually doing the inviting.

Now Nathanael knows where the power comes from, because Jesus looked at him, and he knew him. The way Jesus knows us is so intensely personal, and so loving at the deepest core of our being, that we will eventually do anything, simply to let Jesus look at us like that again.

Jesus of course saw him under the fig tree, before Philip called him, and that's not very normal. For Nathanael, it confirmed what Philip had first told him, and made him ready to receive whatever Jesus wanted to give him. The rest of what Jesus says here sounds a bit like, "You ain't seen nothing yet, buddy. Just wait."

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