Open Access to Heaven
Opening Prayer
Lord, You alone are my hope, my safety and my strength. Speak to me now from Your Word, I pray.
Read JOHN 1:43–51
43 The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, “Follow me.”
44 Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. 45 Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
46 “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked.
“Come and see,” said Philip.
47 When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.”
48 “How do you know me?” Nathanael asked.
Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.”
49 Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.”
50 Jesus said, “You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that.” 51 He then added, “Very truly I tell you, you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’ the Son of Man.”
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Meditate
Knowledge of God can only be obtained by divine revelation and not by human effort. Lord, please open my mind and heart more for You.
Think Further
The chain of testimony continues (Jesus finds Philip, who in turn finds Nathanael and invites him to “Come and see”; 46), but we will focus on the theme of revelation in today’s reading. On meeting Jesus, Nathanael is stunned by the extent of Jesus’ knowledge of him and his movements. It makes him realize that Jesus is no ordinary person. As an explanation for his extraordinary knowledge, Jesus points to a significant aspect of his identity in verses 50 and 51.
In verse 51, Jesus alludes to Genesis 28:12, which describes Jacob’s remarkable vision of God at Bethel. This verse suggests that Jesus is the mediator or point of contact between heaven and earth, the two realms that are otherwise separated in John’s worldview. In Jesus, the divine and human intersect. As a result, people will experience “greater things” (50)—greater revelation of the divine—because Jesus has unrestricted access to heaven. In most religions, people seek to access the divine through practices like asceticism or the occult. Christians, however, understand that One from the divine realm has come to our world to explain the divine and make this realm accessible to us.
The idea that God chooses to reveal himself is important in John’s Gospel. For John, knowledge of God cannot be acquired by human reason or effort but only by divine revelation, available in and through Jesus. He is both the Revealer and the revelation of God and hence the key to saving knowledge and salvation. Remember the prologue, where John states that no one has seen God, meaning that no one knows God in the sense of having a saving knowledge of him. Jesus, however, who is intimate with God and who is the mediator between heaven and earth, has come to reveal him.
Apply
All we know about God has been revealed to us in his Son and through his Word. What are some practical steps you can take to know God better?
Closing prayer
Spirit of God, draw me closer to Jesus so that I may be renewed in him. Speak to me, enlighten me, lead me and renew me so that I may have revitalized faith.
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