Pastor Steven Furtick Sermon Do you know who you are: what was it about Nazareth that made them push away the one who came to set them free? what was it about Nazareth?
The Bible tells us one thing that Nathaniel said, that this whole text and our entire understanding of why God often cannot do what he wants to do in our lives it hinges on this because when Philip came to find Nathaniel, he was excited about Jesus. this is when Jesus was first assembling his squad this is before he sent them out to do any miracles and Philip comes running up to his friend Nathaniel.
He’s called Nathaniel in John’s Gospel other writers call him Bartholomew he had an alias here he’s called Nathaniel and Philip comes to Nathaniel because sometimes the first thing you do when you really meet Jesus is drag people with you sometimes when God really gets a hold of your life you will bribe people into coming to church with you, you’ll buy a Starbucks to get them to sit with you in church because you know how messed up they are but you can’t tell them that.
So Philip found Nathanael verse 45 john 1 and told him, we have found the one somebody, this is the one Moses wrote about in the law and whom the prophets also wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph and Nathaniel’s reaction helps us to understand why the people of Nazareth resisted Jesus and missed his miracles and it helps us understand why we tend to push people away sometimes and it helps us understand why sometimes we reject the love people are trying to give us but really we are rejecting something else.
When Philip said we found the one, Nathaniel was excited but when he said where he was from Jesus of Nazareth, Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, come and see.
Pastor Steven Furtick said i thought they only rejected Jesus and took offense and were trapped scandal on to set a trap i thought they were offended by Jesus because they were so familiar with him but now I think the reason that they rejected Jesus is because they rejected themselves apparently Nazareth had a reputation because the first thing that Daniel said was Ezra can anything good come from there that’s how I feel about myself.
As a matter of fact I want to helps set somebody free who has been disappointed because someone rejected you a lot of times they’re not rejecting you a lot of times what they are rejecting is something that had nothing to do with you and sometimes they push you away because there’s something pushing on the inside of them a lot of what we experience as rejection is really just projection it’s people who have been disappointed who have been hurt and now you’re thinking what’s wrong with me, that definitely not the case because Nathaniel reacted the way he did towards the information of Jesus because he was somewhat judging himself and it is the same in a lot of places and with a lot of people today.