In the Beginning was the Word - Part 501

They said to one other -- Did not our hearts burn within us while He talked to us by the way, while He opened to us the scriptures. (Luke 24:32) It is written. The Word that is written is so important to our spiritual journey with Jesus. Indeed, this explains why Jesus answered the devil saying, "It is written that man shall not live by bread alone but by every Word of God." (Luke 4:4) For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the scriptures. (I Corinthians 15:3-4) Then opened He their understanding that they might understand the scriptures. (Luke 24:45)

When we read about Nathanael in John 1, we begin to understand why the Word -- Jesus -- has such significance. Earlier in the chapter, it states "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God ... and the Word became flesh." Later we read about finding the Messiah -- the Christ that was prophesied throughout the Old Testament -- this same God who loved us so much that He would become as one of us and then allow His humanity to die on the cross so that we might have salvation. Consider the following example from the Word and be edified knowing that Jesus knew us too before we met Him.

Beginning in John 1:40 and reading from the King James version, we find that one of the two which heard John speak, and followed him, was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. "He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ. And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, A stone. The day following Jesus would go forth into Galilee, and find Philip, and saith unto him, Follow me.

Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip finds Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see.

Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!

Nathanael saith unto him, 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. Nathanael answered and saith 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 thee under the fig tree, believest thou? Thou shalt see greater things than these. And he said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man."

Jesus knew Nathanael even before He had met Him. "Whence thou knowest me?" Nathanael asks.  Equally important here is Nathanael's response to Jesus - "thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel." Here was Nathanael meeting God in the flesh. Imagine how he must have felt - knowing that He was standing with the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. It is no wonder that people's hearts burned when Jesus opened the scriptures.

We have the same opportunity to read the Word today. To read and understand who Jesus was and why He loved us so much even before the foundations of the world were created. "I am the Lord - I change not." (Malachi 3:6)  So as Philippians 3:15-21 states: "Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded : and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded , God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing. Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample. (For many walk , of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping , that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things. 

[But as believers] our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself."

Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life and they are they which testify of me - Jesus. (John 5:39) Yes, Jesus loves you! Stand in the offering plate.