Talking To A Skeptic, Part 2

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ.

Notice what happens. Verse 46, Nathanael said to him, Can anything good come out of Nazareth? And Philip said to him, Why don't you come and see? By the way, that's Jesus' invitation to any skeptic. You're a skeptic? Fine. Just come and see.

Do the investigation. See what you think. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana.

Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's Word meets our world. Skepticism is often born in the context of pride and prejudice. You see, well, how do I know that? Nathanael said to him, Can any good thing come? Come on.

Wow. He's prejudiced. He has a disdain for Nazareth. It's not in the text, but I really believe at that moment he looked at Philip and he rolled his eyes. Really, Nazareth?

Really. That's what skeptics do. You see, what we learn here is that Nazareth is a city of disdain. Judeans look down on those from Galilee. You're just a Galilean. You're from the wrong place.

But get this. Galileans look down on Nazareth. You see, Nazareth was right next door to Sepphoris. Sepphoris is a military establishment of the Romans. It's a garrison. Roman soldiers there.

The business of Nazareth is the business of keeping the soldiers of Rome entertained. So you know exactly what kind of town Nazareth is. That's the town. It's a nowhere town in a no place.

And what's interesting is Nathaniel doesn't like it, and it's because he's prejudiced. You see, we find out that Nathaniel is from Cana. Now, I know you say, well, Cana must be a nice place. I mean, there was a miracle in Cana.

It comes in the next chapter. Yeah. No, Cana is no place. Cana is so no place that even the scholars aren't even sure where Cana was. But the best answer is the best scholarship points that Cana is a little town about nine miles from Nazareth. Now, that's close. And there's nothing in between.

So he is from Cana. It reminds me of like two rural towns with, you know, two high schools. Like your arch rival is the town that looks just like your town down the road.

But everything about it's bad. You see, they're your arch rival. And so you have, in this case, Nathaniel making a statement. He said, this is a bad place. By the way, it's not unusual.

It doesn't stay that way. Hold your place there and go with me to the book of Acts chapter 24. The book of Acts chapter 24. Now we're talking about Paul much later in time. And he's in the middle of his ministry. And he's going to have to stand before Felix, the governor.

But I want you to see something here. Acts chapter 24. Verse one. It says, after five days, the high priest, Ananias, came down with some elders when an attorney named Tertullus with him. And they brought charges to the governor against Paul. And after Paul had been summoned, Tertullus began to accuse him, saying to the governor. Now watch this typical lawyer speech here.

Watch how this starts. He says, since we have, through you, attained much peace. And since by your providence, reforms are being carried out for this nation. We acknowledge this in every way and everywhere. Most excellent Felix, with all thankfulness.

They hated their oppressors. He's just giving a lawyer talk. He's buttering them up. He says, but then I may not weary you any further. I beg you to grant us, by your kindness, a brief hearing.

Then he says this. For we have found this man, and this is a great translation, a real pest. Just seems kind of funny in the word of God to be called that, doesn't it? We have found this man a real pest and a fellow who stirs up dissension among all the Jews throughout the world. A ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes. It's a bad word even then.

Nazarene. What good can come out of Nazareth? You see what pride and prejudice does? That's the way it works.

We can go back to John now. You see a typical skeptic starts with ridicule and disdain. There are still skeptics with us today.

You might be one. Christianity. I grew up with that.

I went to church when I was 11. I ain't getting any out of that. Really?

Yeah. You see that kind of skepticism. Christianity is still from Nazareth. It's amazing when you hear that kind of disdain. I can remember as a student of philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh, there was one professor in particular, and only one, but he understood that I was a quote unquote, he always said this with a smile on his face, a born again Christian. He had a lot of fun at my expense when he would teach philosophy. Once talking to him in a serious way, he said to me that he wouldn't even consider Christianity. He said, because there aren't any serious thinkers in it.

Never have been. You know, and I didn't know much because I was serious then, but I couldn't think very well. But the point would be, I've often thought of that and I thought, I would love you to stand in an open debate with Ravi Zacharias.

I would love to watch you. I would want to love to see your intellect at work with somebody who can outthink you in virtually every way. You see, but he wasn't an honest skeptic. He was dishonest. You see, the idea wasn't he wasn't really going to look for it and explore it. That wasn't what he was going to do.

He was just simply going to dismiss it. And that's what happens when you have pride and prejudice. To some people, Jesus is still from Nazareth. To some people, they're still rolling their eyes. If you're one of those kind of people, though, let me say two things to you, two observations.

One is this. Rolling your eyes and skepticism against the validity of Jesus Christ is the kind of dismissiveness that can be extremely deadly. You see, it kills your serious thinking.

Don't just dismiss it outright. If you want to be a skeptic, be a real one. Be Lee Strobel. Be Josh McDowell. Be a real skeptic.

Do the homework. But don't dismiss it. Tara Parker Pope wrote a book on marriage called For Better. And she says eye-rolling is a definite warning sign that a relationship is in trouble.

She writes this. Marriage can handle disagreement, pain, frustration, and disappointment, but dismissal of the other person is much more serious. And by the way, if you do marriage counseling, when you hear someone speak, if you want to know the condition of their relationship, watch the other person's face. I hate to say that because I'm not trying to implicate any of you, but I sort of am. Eye-rolling. You see, what is that? Complete dismissal. I'm not even going to interact with what they said. You see how that works?

It's too much at stake. Secondly, by dismissing Christianity, you sever the living taproot of your own core values. I'm always amazed that somebody will tell me they're an atheist, they're an agnostic, and then when you start investigating the things they value and how they see life, they're all Christian. It's funny to me. See, they have no basis for their values.

It hangs in midair. Luke Ferry, who is a French philosopher and an unsaved man and proclaims it that way, says the philosophy of human rights, concern for the poor, and women's equality would have never been established without Christianity. It's interesting. Where do we get our values from? What are our values? Don't be like Nathaniel. Don't dismiss Christ out of hand. And so skepticism is often born in the context of pride and prejudice. But even skeptics who dismiss Christianity always have an underlying spiritual need, and that's going to be the case.

Notice what happens. Verse 46, Nathaniel said to him, Can anything good come out of Nazareth? And Philip said to him, Why don't you come and see? By the way, that's Jesus' invitation to any skeptic. You're a skeptic, fine. Just come and see.

Do the investigation. See what you think. In his case, he's going to get to meet him. Jesus saw Nathaniel coming. See, how do I know that Nathaniel had a deep spiritual need? He came. Philip said, Come and see and what Nathaniel do.

He went and saw. Now, if he just said dismiss it, nothing good come out of Nazareth, I'm not wasting my time. But he doesn't. You see, he doesn't.

Why? Because I'm sure he knows Andrew and Simon and Philip and probably John, and they're all saying the same thing to him. He's the one. John the Baptist said he's the one.

He's our Messiah. Now, he has all of his own issues, and Nathaniel comes. Now, here comes Nathaniel, and Jesus saw him coming, and this must be a shock. Nathaniel's thinking, How's this going to go?

What am I going to do to this guy? I want to know all about this Nazareth thing. And Jesus sees him coming and says, Ido! Behold! That's a big word, by the way. That's one of these exciting words. That's one of these words that you only say when you see something enormous happen.

A volcano erupts. Ido! Jesus says it to Nathaniel. Behold!

And then he says this to him. He says, An Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit, no gal. That word no deceit isn't really, shouldn't be translated no deceit.

There's no negative in it. It's aletheia. It's a, it's a adverb form of aletheia, truth. This is a true Israelite. This is an honest man.

You see, in a man in whom there is no gal is one of the translations. This guy's honest. You see, this man is an honest man. He just simply telling you what he thinks.

What's so funny is this. Nathaniel knows what kind of man he is. You know guys like that. You ever met a guy and you'll describe him to someone else and say, look, if you don't want to hear the truth, don't talk to him. He's going to tell you exactly what he's thinking. I mean, he doesn't care who hears it.

He's going to tell you what he's thinking. That's what Jesus is saying about him. Boy, you're a true Israelite. An honest man. Now, look at the response. Nathaniel said to him, how do you know me? See, Nathaniel knows that's him. He goes, how do you know me?

You see, how would you know me? I'm sure his mind is just running. Did Philip get to him first? But wait, Philip and Andrew, they didn't even meet him until yesterday.

So this is all happening very, very fast. How did you know me? He's pondering it and Jesus said, before Philip called you, before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. Omniscience.

And he knows it. Omniscience. The Logos.

Eternal. You see, the Logos. Omniscience.

What? By the way, people have tried to respond so often historically to this in trying to figure out how does he get so wound up because Jesus saw him under a fig tree? I mean, couldn't he have been peeking and seen him somewhere or someone informed? You know, it's all kinds of rational ways of looking at this. So there's all kinds of funny traditions. There's a Syriac tradition that says that what happened was Nathaniel was living in Judea when Herod was killing all of the two-year-olds under and his mother hid him under a fig tree.

And he and his mother knew that, but no one else did and Jesus was saying, I saw you when you were under that fig tree. Oh, wow. Wow. You know, my whole life, that sounds good, but there's nothing to support it. Then there's the view that the Talmud suggests that Jewish men go under a fig tree and meditate on the Old Testament at least once a day or as often as they can. But again, there's nothing to substantiate that.

I think it's this. I think Philip never stopped talking to Nathaniel about who Jesus Christ was, who John the Baptist said he was, and what the conversation that Andrew and Simon had with him about who Jesus said he was. And when Jesus said this, that was all, it just clicked.

Because what's the response? Before Philip called you, when you were under a fig tree, I saw you, and Nathaniel answered him and said, Moroni, you are the son of God, you are the king of Israel, that fast. Complete conversion, that fast. Now, I'm not so sure he knew what he meant when he said, you are the son of God. We know that Jesus is the son of God. We know he represents one part of the Trinity, the son part.

But I'm not sure that's what Nathaniel was saying or meaning when he says that. The term son of is a little bit different in that context. The idea of son of God is a Hebraism.

And a Hebraism is that they use in order to show the nature of something. For example, if you were the son of Belial, you would be called one who has the same nature as Satan. If you were the son of Thunder, remember the sons of Thunder, James and John? It didn't mean that their dad's name was Thunder. It meant, man, these guys are loud.

These guys are loud. There are sons of wickedness, there are sons of affliction, there are sons of valor, all of those type of things. You're the son of God. You have the nature of God. In context of what John is saying, you are the Logos. You are the Messiah. He converts immediately.

Now, what's interesting to me about that is simply this, though. That's exactly what happened to me. I can still remember the idea of being the skeptic and playing the role of the skeptic for years, and especially in the last year with a fellow coming to me to Christ, witnessing to me. And then I can remember going back to my lab and kneeling down by my desk and praying to receive Christ. And my whole life changed on one day. And now I had meaning and purpose. Everything was better.

Everything in my life. Now, the day before, I was, Nazareth, come on. You see? I didn't say it that way. I'd say things like, you're going to tell me that some guy, a Jewish guy in an obscure country, a little dirt patch in the world, died 2,000 years ago being crucified by Romans.

They crucified lots of people. And if I believe he died for me, I'm going to heaven and God and me are right. Is that what you're telling me?

And he would say, yeah, that's it. Next day, you're the Son of God. You're my Savior. That's the way it works.

That's just the way it works. You see, that's the transformation. I love what Jesus does here. Jesus answered and said to him, wait a minute, let me get this straight.

Because I said to you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? He goes, you're going to see greater things than these. You haven't seen anything yet. You see, if that really wowed you, you haven't seen anything yet about what I can do and what I'm going to do.

Wow. Jesus then says, truly, truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. What does he mean there? Well, let's go to Genesis chapter 28. And we'll come back for closure in John. But Genesis 28, four verses, verse 10. This is what Jesus is alluding to. Genesis 28, 10, then Jacob departed from Beersheba and went toward Haran. He came to a certain place and spent the night there because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of the place and put it under his head, and he laid down in that place.

And he had a dream. And behold, a ladder was set on earth with its top reaching into heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.

Now, this is interesting. This is the imagery that he has. And it says then, again, another behold. And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham, the God of Isaac, the land in which you lie.

I will give it to you and to your descendants. It's called Jacob's ladder. What's that mean? In that imagery, what he is simply trying to say is this. God says, I will bridge you to heaven.

I will do that. You will see angels going up and down. And here's the point. The covenant I made with Abraham and with Isaac, I make with you.

This is your land. Now, go back to John. That's what Jesus is saying.

There's something else here that's quite interesting. I don't think Nathaniel's alone in this. I know Philip's with him. But my thoughts are that so are Andrew, Simon Peter, and John.

Because Jesus said to him, truly, truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens. Can't see it in English. But the you, second person plural. Not you singular, y'all. You see, it's a plural. He's saying, I'm saying to all you guys.

You see, they're all, they're like, what? Remember, they don't know much about them at all, except behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. And he says, truly, truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.

Think of that. When Zacharias was told that he and his wife would give birth to the one who will be the proclaimer of the King to come, John the Baptist, an angel told him that. Mary was told she'll give birth to the Messiah of Israel. An angel told her that. Joseph was told that Mary would have a child and the Father would be the Spirit of God. An angel told Joseph that. You see, when Jesus Christ was tempted and he went through the temptations in Matthew 4 and verse 11, it says, and the angels of God ministered to him.

When there was an empty tomb, who was there? The angels. Who proclaimed his birth to the shepherds? Angels. You see, and when he ascends into heaven in Acts 1, who's there?

Angels. You see, and that's what Jesus Christ is saying. From the beginning of my life to the end, the bridge between here and heaven is now open.

It's flowing. Angels are coming and angels are going. You see, that's what you're going to see. You're going to see the Son of God.

Here's the point of that in this context. When you start your search for Jesus Christ with skepticism and you find Jesus Christ, you will find infinitely more than you're expecting. That's what Jesus is telling them. Hey, you think you found Messiah?

You have found so much more than that. You see, when you come to Jesus Christ, you find so much more than what you were looking for. I would imagine in one sense, there's no doubt in my mind that I would be looking, as almost all of us would be, for the forgiveness of my sins and having eternity in my sights.

I would say when someone was giving me the claims of Christ, going to heaven sounded pretty good to me. There was something else I wanted, though. What I wanted was peace. I just wanted to have peace in this life, because I thought about life enough to leave myself in a lot of turmoil. I got heaven, and I got peace. And boy, I got so much more. I got purpose.

I got meaning. I got a reason to get up every day. I have joy.

I mean, there's so many. I've come to give you life and to give it to you abundantly. My idea is that you get so much more from Christ than you ever could have imagined when you came. Skepticism is often based and borne out in the context of pride and prejudice. Even skeptics who dismiss Christianity have an underlying spiritual need. The first conversation of the ministry of Jesus Christ that we have recorded in the Bible is with a skeptic.

And all Jesus is saying is this. Go ahead. Be a skeptic. It's OK, as long as you're an honest skeptic. Because if you're an honest skeptic, I will satisfy your curiosity. And when you find me, you'll find more than you ever expected to find.

I know that's true, because that's exactly what happened to me. Let's pray. Father, I pray for the skeptic. I pray for someone here who is still skeptical, still pigeonholing Christianity as, oh, what good can come from Nazareth?

What is special about Jesus? Father, I pray that they won't use their own pride or their own prejudice to dismiss Christianity. But they will be an honest skeptic. They will seek to encounter Christ.

They will do their homework. And I believe, Father, that if they do that in an honest way, they will see that the claims of Jesus Christ are true and real and can make the difference in life. Father, for those of us who are believers in Christ, who have overcome our own skepticism, for us, Father, may we be patient with people who are skeptical. May we be, as Philip was, simply a witness for what Jesus Christ has done for us. As the apostle Peter said, give an account for the hope that's in us. Father, I thank you for these conversations that we're going to go through with Jesus Christ because they truly reveal His heart and His love for each and every one of us. In His name, we pray.

Amen. You've been listening to Pastor Bill Gebhardt on the Radio Ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts, or maybe you would just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called oneplace.com. That's oneplace.com, and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online.

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