you ain’t seen nothing yet!
Posted by jaked | Filed under a smart guy once said..., i don't need no stinking label
bto – you ain’t seen nothing yet 
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i’ve been pretty spastic in my quiet times lately, not specifically studying any particular book at the moment. i’ve actually been going back to verses i’ve memorized in the past and, in order to get a better understanding of them, reading them in context with the verses around them. this morning i was reading john 1. the verses i had previously memorized were the first couple verses:
in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. in Him was life, and the life was the light of men. the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
a fantastic way to start a book in my honest opinion, but that’s not the point you can read about book openings here. anyway what recently stuck out to me is found later in chapter 1 where Jesus is first assembling the men who would be responsible for really his entire ministry and who would live and die for the cause. most specifically nathanael. nathanael must have been a friend of philip who Jesus had invited to follow him just before.
philip, just like anyone who had just found out something incredible, rushed off to tell his friends, specifically nathanael, who’s hanging out under a fig tree. “we have found him of whom moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of nazareth…” (vs45) nathanael responds to this with “can anything good come out of nazareth?” i love nathanael’s response. the biting sarcasm, the criticalness, i think we probably would be been friends… but curiosity won out and nathanael came to see who it was that philip was talking about.
Jesus saw nathanael coming and said to him, “behold, an israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” (vs47) nathanael was taken back at this assessment of himself and asked Jesus how he knew him. and Jesus answered him, “before philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, i saw you.” ok now things are getting weird for nathanael. how could this guy have seen him without actually being there? something about this seemed amazing yet unbelievable.
this little glimpse into the power of God was all that nathanael needed to be convinced that this was the Son of God, the true King of Israel. Jesus replied to this pretty amazing conclusion with this, “because i said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? you will see greater things than these.” basically Jesus was telling him, “you ain’t seen nothing yet!”
it’s cool putting myself in nathanael’s place, because i’ve gotten to see God do some pretty cool stuff. providing for needs, changing lives, (my own included) and pull off the unthinkable… but i haven’t seen anything yet… i haven’t seen, what Jesus said was coming, “truly, truly, i say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
