The Bible is God’s “revelation” of Himself to His creatures.

The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law. Deuteronomy 29:29

God revealed Himself to Moses and the prophets, who then revealed His Word to God’s people. We learn through Isaiah’s prophecy that God would one day reveal “the arm of the Lord” who would “bear their iniquities” (Isaiah 53:1-12). Jesus is the strong “arm” of the Lord who came to earth to present Himself as an offering for sin.

Revealing Jesus

The words and actions God would use to “reveal” Himself were determined before the foundation of the world, before time began. That’s important to keep in mind as we read through the Old Testament. Everything unfolded just as God had planned.

The same is true with the revelation of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. What Jesus would say and do were determined in eternity. As we read through the words of Jesus, we want to carefully observe how He revealed Himself and the coming Kingdom. Observation must precede interpretation.

For the Jews who knew their Bibles well, they should have known what was going to happen when the Messiah was revealed to Israel. However, no matter what He said and did, they would not believe in Him.

But although He had done so many signs before them, they did not believe in Him, that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke: ‘Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?’ Therefore they could not believe, because Isaiah said again: ‘He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, Lest they should see with their eyes, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.’ These things Isaiah said when he saw His glory and spoke of Him. John 12:37-41

If we read the Old Testament first, we’ll see this coming. Reading the New Testament is basically a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies concerning Jesus. The Old Testament is like a giant pointer that leads to Jesus of Nazareth.

In the last part of our series, we looked at the first recorded words of Jesus in the New Testament (to His mother), His words to John the Baptist, and His words to Satan when the devil tempted Him in the wilderness.

We now move to what Jesus said to people during His earthly ministry. Jesus spoke more than 31-thousand words that are recorded for us to read in the New Testament and the overwhelming majority were to human beings, though some were to supernatural beings (e.g. His Heavenly Father, Satan and demons).

We turn our attention now to seven more aspects of Jesus’ sayings in the New Testament. These make up the vast majority of His recorded sayings:

  1. Jesus’ sayings to His disciples
  2. Jesus’ sayings to the people of Israel
  3. Jesus’ sayings to the religious leaders of Israel
  4. Jesus’ sayings to demons
  5. Jesus’ sayings to His Heavenly Father
  6. Jesus’ sayings from the Cross
  7. Jesus’ sayings after the Resurrection

We will specifically look at the sayings of Jesus that liberal and progressive ‘Christians’ do not believe Jesus ever said. Keep in mind that the so-called scholars of The Jesus Seminar believe Jesus did not say more than 80% of the words attributed to Him in the New Testament. They, and others who do not believe God’s Word is true, see Jesus as soft and weak. They see Him as defeated and still dead to this day. They are wrong. Jesus is very much alive and said what He said He said.

Jesus’ Sayings To His Disciples

Jesus came to earth from Heaven with a plan to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8), save lost sinners and give them the gift of eternal life (e.g. Luke 19:10; John 3:16), and glorify the name of His Heavenly Father (e.g. John 12:27-28; 17:1-5). Jesus was laser focused from childhood on accomplishing those goals (e.g. Luke 2:41-50) and never wavered from His objective. He came to earth on a rescue mission of eternal scale, but He did not plan to do that alone.

God’s eternal plan to redeem the human race has always included members of that race. We see that throughout the Old Testament. God called people into His service: Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Samuel, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah — and the list goes on. God spoke to and through members of the race He was redeeming. The same is true in the New Testament.

Jesus went from the Jordan River to the wilderness and then to Galilee. It was there, in Galilee, that Jesus began choosing the people who would become His closest followers and the men He would send out as apostles (apostolos – one sent on a mission, envoy, delegate, empowered representative) of His Gospel.

And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. Then He said to them, ‘Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.’ They immediately left their nets and followed Him. Going on from there, He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets. He called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed Him. Matthew 4:18-22

Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching and preaching, and His disciples went with Him. They saw Him teach in the synagogues and preach the Gospel of the Kingdom. They witnessed Jesus healing people of all kinds of sicknesses, diseases and torments. That included people who were epileptics and paralytics and people possessed with demons. The disciples watched as His fame spread throughout all Syria. They saw “great multitudes” follow Jesus, from Galilee, and from Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan (Matthew 4:23-25).

Can you imagine being with Jesus from the early days of His earthly ministry? What an amazing adventure that must have been. I look forward to talking with them one day about their experiences.

Just Ten Words

Notice what Jesus said to them — just ten words — “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” How did the men respond?

  • Peter and his brother Andrew — “They immediately left their nets and followed Him.”
  • James and his brother John — “and immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed Him.”

The calling of the first four disciples is similar in Mark 1:16-20. We learn in Luke’s Gospel account that James and John were fishing partners with Peter and Andrew. Luke 5:1-11 adds some details of the calling to discipleship from what we have in Matthew and Mark.

John’s Gospel account gives us more detail and more of what Jesus said, which is what we want to see in our series.

We learn in John 1 that some of the men Jesus called to be disciples were also disciples of John the Baptist. Reading the four Gospel accounts of the calling of these first four disciples helps us understand why Peter, Andrew, James and John would “immediately” leave their vocation as fishermen to follow Jesus. Andrew was a disciple of John the Baptist and was with him when the Baptist pointed to Jesus and said — “Behold the Lamb of God” (John 1:35-36). John the Baptist had said something similar in the hearing of Andrew — “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is He of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who is preferred before me, for He was before me.’” That was an interesting statement chronologically because John the Baptist was six months older than Jesus. John understood that Jesus was “before” him in both age and position.

Andrew and another of the Baptist’s disciples saw Jesus walking by, followed Him and asked Him where where He was staying. Andrew and the other man went with Jesus and spent some time with Him. We don’t know what Jesus said to Andrew during their meeting, but it was apparently enough to convince Andrew to find his brother Simon and say — “We have found the Messiah.” Andrew brought his brother to Jesus and Jesus said to Simon — “You are Simon the son of Jonah. You shall be called Cephas’ ((which is translated, A Stone).”

It’s not surprising that Andrew would have told his brother “We have found the Messiah.” Andrew was a disciple of John the Baptist and what was the Baptist’s primary purpose? To “Prepare the way” of the Messiah.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. John 1:6-8

God had sent John the Baptist to prepare the way for Jesus the Messiah to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.

And he preached, saying, ‘There comes One after me who is mightier than I, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down and loose. I indeed baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. Mark 1:7-8

Based on John’s Gospel, we believe Andrew was Jesus’ first disciple (protokleos, first called). He was in the boat with Peter when Jesus called them (according to Matthew and Mark), but Andrew had met with Jesus previously and introduced his brother to the Lord. We see Andrew mentioned several times in the Gospels and once in the Book of Acts.

Jesus’ True Identity

The next disciple Jesus called was Philip. Philip was from Bethsaida, the same city where Andrew and Peter lived. Jesus said to Philip, “Follow Me” (John 1:43). Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” That’s an interesting comment.

We don’t know if Philip was a good student of Moses and the prophets and recognized Jesus from their writings or whether Jesus revealed Himself to Philip from Moses and the prophets. It might have been a combination of both. Philip did reveal in his comment that Jesus was from Nazareth and that He was the son of Joseph. Philip would learn later that Jesus was far more than the son of a carpenter, but we see that in the early days of following Jesus the disciples saw Jesus as a fellow Galilean.

Nathanael’s response to Philip was interesting — “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?’ Philip said to him, ‘Come and see” (John 1:45-46).

This led to an interesting exchange between Jesus and Nathanael, who became one of Jesus’ early disciples.

Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him, and said of him, ‘Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit!’ Nathanael said to Him, ‘How do You know me?’ Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.’ Nathanael answered and said to Him, ‘Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!’ Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.’ And He said to him, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. John 1:47-51

Notice that Jesus did not correct Nathanael’s statement that Jesus was the “Son of God” and “the King of Israel.” Instead, Jesus pointed to Nathanael’s belief and said he would “see greater things than these.” Jesus then pointed Nathanael back to the Book of Daniel, which was a reference to the Messiah of Israel:

I was watching in the night visions, And behold, One like the Son of Man, Coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, And they brought Him near before Him. Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, Which shall not pass away, And His kingdom the one Which shall not be destroyed. Daniel 7:13-14

Those liberal ‘scholars’ who don’t believe Jesus ever made claims to divinity or being the Messiah of Israel, should re-read this early encounter with Nathanael. It will certainly ‘school’ them about their heresies.

Nathanael said something that many people said in Israel in the 1st century AD — “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” We learn in John 21 that Nathanael was from the Galilean city of Cana. Cana was less than four miles north of Nazareth, but the people there looked down on anyone from Nazareth. Nazareth was a very small town with no significance in Israel’s history. People who lived in Nazareth were often laborers who had to walk to other towns to work or sell their goods. You can imagine Jesus growing up in an insignificant village walking with Joseph to other towns to get work as carpenters.

The village of Nazareth is not mentioned in the Old Testament. It was also not mentioned in the Hebrew Talmud or by Jewish historian Josephus who knew the region of Galilee well. Archaeological findings from the area around Nazareth reveal that it may have been a center of cult worship when the Canaanites dominated the area. Even though Nazareth has a population of more than 75-thousand people now, the population of 1st century Nazareth was probably about 400 people.

Some historians believe the name Nazareth came from the Hebrew word for “sprout, shoot, branch” (netser). That’s the same word Isaiah used when he wrote – “There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, And a Branch shall grow out of his roots” (Isaiah 11:1).

Interestingly, even as people who lived in Cana and other Galilean towns despised people from Nazareth, Judeans despised Galileans. They were all Jews, but they had their biases toward people from different classes and historical backgrounds. This shows us that Jesus grew up in lowly surroundings and had nothing from His upbringing that would have drawn people to Him. Identifying Jesus as “Jesus of Nazareth” was not a note of cultural pride in Israel.

We learn a great deal about Jesus and Nathanael from the exchange. Jesus, who never lied or deceived, said of Nathanael (also known as Bartholomew), “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit!” That’s quite a statement coming from the Lord. Jesus said that Nathanael had no dolos (deceit, guile, treachery). Jesus also made a point about Nathanael being “an Israelite” in whom was no deceit. Jesus knew the people of Israel well and that their hearts were often deceitful and treacherous.

Jesus proved to Nathanael that He was who Philip had said He was by demonstrating His Omniscience. Jesus knew things that couldn’t be known physically. Jesus had “seen” Nathanael standing under a fig tree before Philip called him. Nathanael was probably not standing under a fig tree when Philip called him, so he would know that Philip couldn’t have whispered that information to Jesus. Nathanael would have known that only God could have seen him standing alone under the fig tree, which is why Nathanael responded with “Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” Nathanael realized that Jesus was exactly who Philip had described. Jesus was “Rabbi” (my master, my teacher), the “Son of God”, and the “King of Israel.” Jesus was the promised Messiah.

Nathanael (Bartholomew) is mentioned sixth and in connection with Philip in lists naming the apostles:

Now the names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus; Simon the Cananite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed Him. Matthew 10:2-4

Next Time

We’ve met six of Jesus’ disciples who would go on to become apostles. In the next part of our special series, And Jesus Said, we will meet the other six and see what Jesus said to them.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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