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Identity: Chosen (Part 2)

Updated: 6 hours ago


Jesus is calling you today to give you the Gospel identity, which you cannot achieve, but receive to live it out for His glory. Only then you will stop performing for the approval, acceptance, and validation of man and begin to pursue His calling in your life.


John 1:43-51 - 43 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” 44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 45 Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” 46 Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” 47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” 48 Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” 49 Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” 50 Jesus answered him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” 51 And he said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

 

We celebrate Palm Sunday because it marks the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem— an entry that fulfilled Old Testament prophecy and changed humanity forever. Zechariah 9:9 says, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud… Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey.” All four Gospels record this moment and say the crowds cried out, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”

 

Everything aligned: the prophecy, the timing, the symbolism, and the identity. Clearly Jesus was the promised Messiah and the eternal King. Yet, the crowd that cheered, “Hosanna” on Sunday, cried, “Crucify Him!” on Friday.

 

We must ask: What turned waving of palm branches into waving of a whip? What turned a coronation into a crucifixion and Christ into a criminal? The answer is not in the crowd— it is in the human heart. You can admire a King without ever surrendering to His Kingship. That is what we call lip service, and it shows a crowd can be loud— and still be lost.

 

The Problem

 

Many people do not know that there is a massive gulf between waving a branch and walking a path. One is a gesture; the other is surrender. They need to know that Palm Sunday exposes a hard truth: Your identity is not determined by the religious gestures you make, but by the voice you obey.

 

Whose voice are you obeying? Yours? The culture’s? Or Christ’s? Whatever voice you listen to and obey shapes your identity. Jesus in John 10:27–28 said, “My sheep hear my voice… and they follow me.”

 

This is exactly what we saw last time in John 1:43–46. When Jesus said, “Follow Me,” Philip heard His voice and moved immediately, but when the Palm Sunday crowd heard the same voice, rather than following Him, they cried, “Crucify Him.” It is not because Philip was better than them, but because Christ’s call reached him. Is Christ calling reaching you? Or is your voice or the voice of the world so loud that you cannot hear Him? Philip did not choose Christ first; Christ chose him. Salvation is never about human initiative but divine intervention.

 

The Big Idea

 

We did not choose Him; He chose us before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4), to give us a new identity— the Gospel identity which we don’t achieve but receive to live it out for the glory of our King Jesus. That means we stop performing for the approval, acceptance, and validation of man and begin to pursue His calling in our lives.

 

John 1:43-51 explains this calling in three movements: His calling reaches us, His calling reads us, and His calling raises us. Last time in John 1:43-46, we examined in detail how His calling reaches us. As we close this nine-part series on identity, let’s  review the first movement and then continue with the next two movements.

 

His Calling Reaches Us (John 1:43-46)

 

John 1:43 reads, “The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, ‘Follow me.’” Three verbs: decided, found, said; one truth: the initiative belongs entirely to Jesus. The Greek word for “Follow me,” akolutheo, echoes the Hebrew term halak achar— “to walk after.” This is what Israel was commanded in Deuteronomy 13:4, “walk after the Lord.” It was a call to covenant faithfulness and total allegiance. Here, “Follow me” expects the same: allegiance, surrender, and reorientation of life for an identity that changes destiny.

 

The Jerusalem crowd on Palm Sunday had what we can call a projected identity. They projected their political and personal desires onto Jesus. They wanted a political king, not an eternal King, a deliverer from Rome, not a ruler over their hearts. This is something we still do to this day. We follow Jesus as long as He heals, blesses, and provides. But when He demands surrender, we withdraw. Many want Jesus as Savior of their lives, but not as Lord over their lives.

 

Last year, a man came to our church desperate for a miracle to stay in this country. We prayed, God answered, and he received his miracle of a Green Card, and then, he disappeared. He wanted the King’s hand, but not His heart.

 

I call that Palm Sunday faith— loud on Sunday, gone by Friday. Temporary faith always exposes a misplaced identity. However, when we have Gospel identity then we do what the Palm Sunday crowd failed to do upon hearing His voice: we surrender to His Kingship unconditionally. When the call reached Philip, he didn’t project an agenda, he didn’t delay, he surrendered unconditionally, and then invited Nathanael to Jesus., which teaches that when Jesus reaches you, you cannot keep Him to yourself.

 

Application

 

Don’t seek identity, purpose, and calling. In Jesus, you have been called to surrender to His Kingship unconditionally, and your purpose is to follow Him and invite others to Him. When Philip heard, followed, and invited Nathanael to  “Come and see” for Jesus yourself.  

 

Spiritual Principle

 

You don’t argue people into the Kingdom; you invite them to the King, because transformation happens in His presence, not in your persuasion. When they hear His voice, they follow Him too.

 

His Calling Reads Us (John 1:47-49)

 

In John 1:47, when Nathanael approaches, just as it was for Peter in the earlier verses, Jesus “reads” Nathanael before a single word is spoken: “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” This is a direct contrast to Jacob, whose name meant “deceiver” before God gave him a new identity: Israel.

 

Jesus was saying, “Nathanael, you are sincere but skeptical; honest but searching.” Completely shocked by the reading of self, John 1:48 says, “Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” and “Jesus answered him, 'Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.””

 

Some wonder what he was doing under the fig tree? Some even think probably something sinful and shady. The beauty of this statement is that whatever it was, it remained between him and Jesus. I do have some thoughts, though. To the Jews, the fig tree symbolized peace when you could sit under your fig tree undisturbed and unafraid; we see this in 1 Kings 4:25 and Micah 4:4. So, perhaps Nathanael was searching for peace and found the Prince of Peace.

 

I have met people who testify that they experience supernatural peace when they say the name of Jesus. Also, in Bible times, it was common to sit under the leafy shade of a fig tree for meditation and prayer. Some scholars argue that this is what Nathaniel was doing, meditating on the promises of God and praying for the day when the promised Messiah would come and give His peace. Nevertheless, the point is not the fig tree. The point is this: before Nathanael ever moved toward Jesus, Jesus already knew him completely.

 

Think of advanced scanning— fingerprints, facial recognition, retina scans. None of them can read the soul; only Jesus does. He sees your “fig tree moments”— those private places of doubt, fear, and sin, and yet He calls us.

 

Religion says, “Clean yourself up, then come,” and culture says, “Hide yourself, or you’ll be rejected,” but the gospel says “Jesus fully knows you— and still calls you.” That is why in John 1:49, “Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”” One is a divine title and the other a messianic one. The Palm Sunday crowd said “King”— but for the wrong reasons. Nathanael said “King”— because he encountered the omniscient and omnipresent God in flesh.

 

Application

 

You don’t have to hide, perform, or pretend. He already sees and knows you and calls you to come as you are. Once you come to Him, He transforms you into His image.

 

Spiritual Principle

 

Jesus does not call us based on assumptions; He calls us with full awareness of the version everyone admires and the version no one sees, but also the version He intends to make.

 

His Calling Raises Us (John 1:50-51)

 

After Nathanael’s confession, John 1:50 reads, “Jesus answered him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe?” In other words, Jesus said, “If that amazed you, you haven’t seen anything yet.”

 

Then Jesus continues, in John 1:50, “You will see greater things than these.” Many don’t get to experience the greater things because they are so focused on the small things. John 1 concludes with verse 51, “And he said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”” Jesus is pointing back to Jacob’s Ladder in Genesis 28. In doing so, Jesus declares, “I am the ladder” that Jacob saw in His dream, the bridge between heaven and earth, man, and God.

 

When His calling reaches you and reads you, its ultimate purpose is to raise you to self. Jesus in John 14:3 said, “where I am you may be also.” So, you don’t climb up to God; God comes down to you. That is the Gospel. No prophet, no guru, and no works of man can save us; nothing gets us into heaven— only Jesus does. This is why in John 14:6, Jesus said, “No one comes to the Father except through me”  because He is the Son of God who took on flesh to die for our sins to save us.

 

Palm Sunday proves it. The King does not wait on a throne— He rides into brokenness. And He doesn’t stop there— He goes to the cross because the only way to raise us was for Him to be lifted up. The crowd rejected Jesus, but God turned their rejection into redemption.

 

Application

 

Don’t stay in the crowd, under the fig tree, or at a distance. Don’t settle for small things for survival because Christ has greater things stored for you. He wants to give you the Kingdom of heaven, but only He can get us into the Kingdom of heaven.

 

Spiritual Principle

 

In Gospel identity, you are not climbing upward through effort. You are being lifted upward by grace, unmerited favor that no one can earn. 

 

Closing Thought

 

As I close, imagine yourself in that Palm Sunday crowd. Would you cheer on Sunday and chant on Friday, “Crucify Him, crucify Him?” Many Christians do that when they live for Jesus on Sunday and rest of the week for the world and themselves. Partial obedience is still disobedience. It like the man who used GPS but kept ignoring the turns and kept getting lost. That is how many follow Jesus.

 

He is calling you through the preaching of His Word. His calling reaches you means He found you. He reads you means He knew you before you knew him. He raises you, meaning He transforms you.

 

Action Step

 

Don’t do what the Jerusalem crowd did on Palm Sunday; they offered Him merely lip service. That crowd proves that you can be near the King without being in the Kingdom. If you have never invited Jesus into your heart, the same King who rode into Jerusalem is calling you today. Bow your knee today to your eternal King and receive the identity that you were chosen for before the foundation of the earth.

 

If Jesus is already your King, then examine your life and see if there is any area of your life that is not under His rule?

 

Appeal

 

Choose the One who chose you before the foundation of the earth. He is calling you today to give you a new identity— the Gospel identity, which you cannot achieve, but receive to live it out for the glory of the Eternal King— Jesus. Then you will stop performing for the approval, acceptance, and validation of man and begin to pursue His calling in your life.

 

Inductive Bible Study: Observation, Interpretation, Application

 

 

Observation: What Does the Text Say?


  1. What does Jesus say about Nathanael in John 1:47 before Nathanael speaks?

     

  2. According to John 1:48, what specific knowledge does Jesus reveal about Nathanael?

     

  3. How does Nathanael respond to Jesus in John 1:49? What titles does he give Jesus?

     

  4. What promise does Jesus make in John 1:50–51 about “greater things?”

     

  5. What imagery does Jesus use in John 1:51, and what Old Testament story does it connect to?

 

Interpretation: What Does the Text Mean?

 

  1. What does Jesus’ statement about Nathanael having “no deceit” reveal about His knowledge of the human heart?

     

  2. Why is Jesus’ knowledge of Nathanael under the fig tree so significant? What does it reveal about Jesus’ identity?

     

  3. Compare Nathanael’s confession (“Son of God… King of Israel”) with the Palm Sunday crowd. What is the key difference in their understanding?

     

  4. What does the reference to “angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man” teach us about who Jesus is?

     

  5. How does this passage support the idea that calling precedes identity?

 

Application: How Should This Change Us?

 

  1. How does knowing that Jesus fully sees and knows you (like He does with Nathanael) challenge your tendency to hide or perform?

     

  2. What are your “fig tree moments,” those private struggles, doubts, or longings you tend to hide from others?

     

  3. Who is your “Nathanael (someone in your life you need to invite to “come and see” Jesus)”?

     

  4. Are you trying to argue people into faith, or are you inviting them to encounter Christ? How can you shift your approach?

     

  5. In what areas of your life are you settling for spiritual survival instead of pursuing true transformation?

     

  6. What does it practically look like for you this week to live out your Gospel identity as someone called by Christ?

     

  7. What is one concrete step you can What is one step you can take this week to be more intentional about sharing the gospel?


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