The Unseen

The Unseen, John 1:43-51 

• snopes.com, I have used this as a fact checker to many various internet tales. 
  • Which is important before you give $ or repost something you see on the internet, because, and this may be hard for some of you to hear, you can’t trust everything you read on the internet. 
  • What surprised me was the story I told you last week about missionaries being saved by armed angels is cited on their reasons for it being “FALSE”. In other words, because it is a repeated event with seemingly embellished details, it must be false. 
    • They end the article with some pretty amazing statements, “it’s sadly ironic that so many tales contrived to display a particular belief system as The One True Way include fabrications tossed in to better carry the message. The Christian commandment about not bearing false witness just isn’t getting the mileage it used to.” Snopes.com

A missionary on furlough told this true story while visiting his home church in Michigan.”While serving at a small field hospital in Africa, every two weeks I traveled by bicycle through the jungle to a nearby city for supplies.
This was a journey of two days and required camping overnight at the halfway point. On one of these journeys, I arrived in the city where I planned to collect money from a bank, purchase medicine and supplies, and then begin my two-day journey back to the field hospital. Upon arrival in the city, I observed two men fighting, one of whom had been seriously injured.
I treated him for his injuries and at the same time talked to him about the Lord Jesus Christ. I then traveled two days, camping overnight, and arrived home without incident.
Two weeks later I repeated my journey. Upon arriving in the city, I was approached by the young man I had treated. He told me that he had known I carried money and medicines. He said, ‘Some friends and I followed you into the jungle, knowing you would camp overnight. We planned to kill you and take your money and drugs. But just as we were about to move into your camp, we saw that you were surrounded by 26 armed guards.’ At this I laughed and said that I was certainly all alone in that jungle campsite.
The young man pressed the point, however, and said, ‘No sir, I was not the only person to see the guards. My five friends also saw them, and we all counted them. It was because of those guards that we were afraid and left you alone.’”
At this point in the sermon, one of the men in the Michigan congregation jumped to his feet and interrupted the missionary and asked if he could tell him the exact day this happened. The missionary told the congregation the date, and the man who interrupted told him this story:
“On the night of your incident in Africa, it was morning here and I was preparing to go play golf. I was about to putt when I felt the urge to pray for you. In fact, the urging of the Lord was so strong, I called men in this church to meet with me here in the sanctuary to pray for you. Would all of those men who met with me on that day stand up?”
The men who had met together to pray that day stood up. The missionary wasn’t concerned with who they were; he was too busy counting how many men he saw. There were 26!
This story is an incredible example of how the Spirit of the Lord moves in mysterious ways. If you ever hear such prodding, go along with it.

• Inspired? But is it true? I don’t know. But it sounds familiar to a story that I know is true. The king of Syria sent an army to seize one man, his name was Elisha. 

When the servant of the man of God rose early in the morning and went out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was all around the city. And the servant said, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?” He said, “Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” Then Elisha prayed and said, “O LORD, please open his eyes that he may see.” So the LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. 2 Kings 6:14–17

• I still advise using scopes.com to verify stories you read or hear, BUT I would not go to them to speak into the unseen realm. 
  • There’s another story about seeing the unseen. 
  • Jacob means deceiver. He lived up to his name by deceiving his dad & steals his brothers birthright and blessing. 
    • Many scholars believe it was here in Genesis Nathaniel was reading. Now, it is an assumption. The scriptures do not say, but based on Jesus’ wording and last comment, it seems to be implied that this could be the case. 
    • I don’t want to end up on snopes.com for embellishing a story and claiming it to be true so I will say it this way, imagine reading Genesis, the teachings of John the Baptist in mind with a strong call to repentance. 
  • Does God have a purpose for me? My sin is ever before me. My heart needs cleansing.  And while under a fig tree meditating on the things of God, maybe the words of Jeremiah come to mind, 
    • The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
    • “I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways,according to the fruit of his deeds.” Jeremiah 17:9–10
  • I imagine Nathaniel saying something like this, “God, I need a new heart, I do not know how, but I know you have a plan, and I trust in you. Search me, test me, for I am yours.” 
    • My son Jacob and his anger issues as a kid, “I try and I try, but I cannot be good”. Trina led him to Jesus that day. Jacob got a new heart. 
    • Maybe Nathaniel, before he left that moment under the fig tree, looked up and remembered the story of Jacob…
    • Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran. And he came to a certain place and stayed there that night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! Genesis 28:10–12
      • “God, show me the ladder…” 
• Read vs. 45-48
  • Can you imagine? Jesus, knowing this encounter, sees his heart, sees the unseen, and speaks directly to his soul. 
    • We should not so quickly forget that Jesus sees the unseen. There is no hiding in the kingdom of God. When it comes upon you, you are laid bare. 
  • Even in Jesus’ earthly ministry as he became fully man he could see through to the hearts of man. 
• Read John 2:24-25
  • Let alone now as the risen king and Lord, who sends the unseen Spirit in our lives to convict us of sin, comfort us in our salvation and teach us his will and way for our lives according to his word! 
    • “How do you know me?” God knows. He is sovereign, omniscient, and sees all that you do not see. I do not focus on sin and depravity of heart because I’m a dark or negative person, I do it because I want you to be prepared to meet your God. 
  • For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. Hebrews 4:12
• Read vs. 49-51, and with the possibility of Genesis 10 and Jacobs ladder still on his mind, Jesus let’s him and us that he is our ladder. He is the bridge between the seen and unseen. GOSPEL. 
  • But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, Hebrews 12:22
  • in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look. 1 Peter 1:12
  • “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven. Matthew 18:10
  • And to which of the angels has he ever said, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet”?  Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation? Hebrews 1:13–14
    • May we look up and see the angels of heaven but may our eyes not stop there, may our eyes gaze to the top of ladder and see God!
      • And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! And behold, the LORD stood above it and said, “I am the LORD…” Genesis 28:12–13
        • COMMUNION
• Benediction
  • looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:2