Week 12 – Devotionals

(It was actually John 1:43-46 SMH) “The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, “Follow me.”

Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote —Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

“Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked.

“Come and see,” said Philip.

-John 1:43-46 // NIV

What Is Nathanael referring to?

1. He could be referencing the prophecy about the Messiah having to come out of Bethlehem in Micah 5:2.

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.”

2. He could be referencing inter-city rivalry.

3. He could be expecting the Messiah to come from a more important or famous city.

The political and cultural expectations found in Nathanael don’t just stop with him. From Peter and Judas to the 1st Century Jewish Leaders and even among Christians today, the wrong expectations about the Messiah can quickly move from ignorance to violence.

Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes – Kenneth Bailey

“The child was born for the likes of shepherds – the poor, the lowly, the rejected. He also came for the rich and the wise who later appear with gold, frankincense, and myrrh.”

Jesus offers the same hope, forgiveness, and love for the rich and the poor. The famous and the unknown. The loved and the unloved.

Jesus was born in a manger instead of a mansion.

He was raised in Nazareth instead of Jerusalem. 

He offered forgivenessinstead of retaliation. 

He encouraged peaceinstead of violence. 

He came for God’s Kingdom instead of political power.

He came for reconciliationinstead of military revolution. 

Jesus is both The Lion of Judah and The Passover Lamb.

He is the X-factor that changed the landscape of what it meant to be a part of God’s Kingdom. 

Philippians 2:3-11

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather,
he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death
—even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

If we want to follow our Messiah and be like Him, it has been made clear that he was a humble servant who was obedient to the Father and cared for the interests of others. Our Messiah calls us to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love our neighbor as ourselves – even the neighbor we may disagree with and despise.