Lamb of God is Jacob’s Ladder John 1:29-51 (Part 2)

About this Episode

Lamb of God is Jacob’s Ladder John 1:29-51 (Part 2) is the topic that will be discussed today on RIOT Podcast, a Christian Discipleship Podcast.

As we learned two podcasts ago, John records in his first chapter of John, the 7 names and titles Jesus identifies with as the Eternal God. We first studied in verses 1-3 that Jesus is the “Word of God”, in vs 14 that He is “God in the flesh”, in verses 4-13 we learned “He is the Light of the world” and in verses 15-28 that He is “the Son of God”. In our reading today of John 1:29 through 51, we will see Jesus as “the Lamb of God” in vs 29-34, “The Messiah” in vs 35-42, the “King of Israel” vs 43-49, and lastly “the Son of Man” in vs 50-51.

Let’s look deeper into the calling of Philip and Nathaniel as well as seeing Jesus as the King of Israel.

Read verses 43-51

The true heart of a follower of Christ is that we tell our friends about Jesus. The illustration painted here of Philip and Nathanial is how it’s done. We simply get them to Jesus and then Jesus takes over from there.

Let’s break down these verses a little further. In John 21:2 we see that at least 7 of the Lord’s disciples were fishermen, including Nathaniel. We see here that Nathaniel started out as a doubter; he did not believe that anything worthwhile could come out of Nazareth. Jesus was born in Bethlehem, but He grew up in Nazareth, which meant He was to be looked down on and rejected.

Jesus has humble beginnings and He humbled himself completely and lived in a no-name place. People can’t grasp why or how Jesus can help, they doubt) Nazareth was an uncelebrated, forgotten town, off the beaten path, even for Galilee. Nazareth’s reputation was poor enough, but outside Israel, the town wasn’t even known. This is why each of the Gospel writers had to explain what Nazareth was — a town in Galilee — when they first mentioned it (Matthew 2:23; Mark 1:9; Luke 1:26).

Some students believe that Nathanael and Bartholomew are the same people. John never mentions Bartholomew in his gospel. But the other three writers name Bartholomew and not Nathanael. Philip is linked with Bartholomew in the list of names in Math 10:3, Mark 3:18, and Luke 6:14 so it is possible that the two men were paired off and served together. It was not unusual on that day for one man to have different names.

When Nathaniel came to Jesus, he discovered that Jesus already knew all about him! In verse 47 he said he was an Israelite in whom there was no deceit. Jesus was referencing Jacob, a man who used deceit to trick his brother, his father, and his father-in-law. God later changed his name to Israel. The reference to Jacobs ladder in 1:51 confirms this.

In verse 48, Nathaniel asked him, “how do you know me?” Then Jesus answered him and said he saw him under the fig tree.

(I am thinking what Nathaniel was thinking under the fig tree must have prepared him to receive the call of Jesus) Maybe verse 49 where he says King of Israel was what he was meditating on.

When Nathaniel said “King of Israel” he was using the title similar to the “Messiah, anointed one.”

Let’s finish this section of scripture by reading verses 50-51. We will see Jesus giving him the title of “Son of man”; this was one of our Lord's favorite titles to give himself. In fact, it is used 83 times in the gospels. The title speaks of both the deity and the humanity of Jesus. In Daniel 7:13 we see the term “Son of man” used in a definite messianic setting and Jesus is using the title here in the same way.

As the Son of Man, Jesus is the living link between heaven and earth. This explains why Jesus is using Jacob's latter reference in Gen 28 here in verse 51. Jesus said in John 14:6 “no one comes to the Father except through me.”

There is no mistake that John is saying that Jesus is the messiah that was on earth in the flesh come to save the world from their sin.