St. Mark 1:17  And Jesus said unto them, “Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.”

(Just a note: Simon, here was not Simon Peter; probably Simon Zelotes - See Acts 1:13 & St. John 1:40 - 43, below.)

St. Mark 2:14And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the receipt of custom, and said unto him, “Follow me.”

St. Luke 5:27  And after these things he went forth, and saw a publican, named Levi, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he said unto him, “Follow me.”

St. John 1:40 - 43  One of the two which heard John speak, and followed him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messiah, which is, being interpreted, the Christ. And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, A stone. The day following Jesus would go forth into Galilee, and findeth Philip, and saith unto him, “Follow me”.

I chose to include this quotation at this time to illustrate a point which will be reiterated again and again as we go through this study: that is, that right from the beginning Jesus asks us to, “Come ye after me”, that is, “Follow me”. Guess what He chose to do! Are we willing to follow Him today. Jesus did not hang “heaven” out as a bait to catch fish. He revealed the kingdom of God and the means of entrance thereto. A paradise after this life was not the message; rather, we should “not perish, but have everlasting life”. That is, we should not be something totally different from what the Creator meant us to be, but by appropriating His nature through the means revealed by Jesus, the Christ, we can become exactly what God had designed. Jesus was the bait; just as we are, after we choose to follow Him. And, it’s not what we have (salvation or heaven) which is the attraction, but what we are in God. Don’t forget who you are in Him. You can be changed just as radically as Jesus’ name change for “Simon”, meaning hearing, to Cephas, a stone: you could be changed from a “hearer” to a “doer” (which is a “son” by virtue of Christ’s nature, who is the “Rock”.) Jesus knew that Simon would eventually “be converted”; become a true “stone”; and, was he ever! And, afterwards, Peter did the things he saw Jesus do… will we?

St. John 1:45 - 51  Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.  And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see.

Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!

Nathanael saith unto him, Whence knowest thou me?

Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee.

Nathanael answered and saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel.

Jesus answered and said unto him, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? thou shalt see greater things than these.  And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.

Jesus is making a point by stating that Nathanael had “no guile”. The Greek word for “guile” is dólos: literally, to bait; and, meta-phorically: fraud, guile, deceit. He was, in all likelihood, making a play on words for the sake of the others, in reference to their mutual fishing occupations and His comment to them about becoming “fishers of men”. The rest of His conversation with Nathanael reveals that He recognized Nathanael’s spiritual maturity (the fig tree being the shade tree for most Jewish homes, where the men would often study the scriptures during the heat of the day). It was not that Nathanael was under the fig tree when Philip called him, but “Before that Philip called” (He was not seeing through Philip’s eyes). And, Jesus promised Nathanael that he would witness the things he had been reading about Him.

Two points: first, it takes spiritual maturity not to “bait” someone with promised things, when presenting the gospel. Those things are secondary to the relationship. Heaven is meaningless without the sacrifice of our self. Secondly, spiritual maturity leads us into greater and greater understanding of God, the Christ, and the Holy Spirit, revealing glory unto glory to us. “Grace and truth” is what Jesus brought to earth: what else can we give to others? As Peter once said, “Gold and silver, I have none; but, such as I have, I give unto thee….”

ADDENDUM: With the conclusion of my own study of two phrases, as used throughout the Bible, I believe I can give an opinion concerning the last comment of Jesus to Nathanael, “Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.” First, about the “angels of God”; we all think we know what these are; a closer look may reveal something new. In my study of the phrase “son(s) of God”, I found that angels were included. “Son(s) of God” are specific creations of God who have a share of His image and His likeness, and, are obedient to Him. These are all “Son(s) of God: the “angels of God”, Adam and Eve before their disobedience, their children born before the fall(being immortal, no ancestry was needed), the Son of God (Jesus), and the “born again” (since they are “recreated” by a specific act of God). We’re in some pretty heavy company! Pay attention!

Secondly, a study of the phrase “son of man”, reveals something very significant about Jesus, and us. The word “son” in this phrase is NOT CAPITALIZED in the 1611KJV as often as in our modern Bibles. Uniformly, throughout the Old Testament, the phrase is used of man on earth or his descendents. The connotation of its usage is of man in his fallen state, or his physical appearance. Ezekiel used the phrase to describe himself, what God called him when addressing him, throughout his writings. The ONLY instance in the Old Testament where modern Bibles capitalize it, Daniel, 17:13; is not so treated in the 1611. Here, the writer is describing one being brought before God as appearing to be a man, as contrasted to the heavenly creatures in the dream. There is no connotation of the person being Jesus, and the verse is more meaningful if it is not. The Jews were very aware of their humanness, and, the phrase, “son of man” was used to describe that. The only justification for capitalizing “son” in this verse is to show that after the resurrection, we will become as Jesus, glorified as St. John tells us, “we know that when he appears, we shall be like him.”

Out of 81 times (every instance) where it appears in the Gospels capitalized, the 1611 only capitalizes 50 times. The significance is that the 1611 KJV differentiates between “man on earth” and Jesus, or man, “glorified”. That is, when Jesus identifies himself with the apostles, religious leaders, and common folk, the 1611 does not capitalize “son”. When He talks of events to happen AFTER His crucifixion, “Son” is capitalized (once immediately before His death). Given that Jesus was well aware of the usage of the phrase in the Old Testament, it would appear that Jesus used it to identify with everyday man. In so doing, Jesus would be emphatically telling us that He is not far from us, that (as He made perfectly clear) we would be able to do just as He was doing; BEING USED OF GOD. When we put special significance on Jesus’ humanity, we distance Him from us; and THAT is totally contrary to His teachings. The 1611 KJV does not capitalize “son” in the above verse. If that is appropriate (and I believe so), then we have two possible renderings of this comment; remembering, too, that heaven is not out there somewhere, but all around us.

1. “In the future, you are going to see heaven revealed with the angels of God ministering to Me.

2. “Later, you’re going to see, all around you, the angels of God ministering to the Sons of God.”

I believe that both of these are equally justified in the light of our studies, and consent of the Holy Spirit. Jesus wants us to realize His affinity with us, both when He was here and now. “Jesus, the same yesterday, today, and forever.” Jesus was telling Nathanael (and us) that we would both “see” and “enter” the kingdom of God before we left this world; after all, “the kingdom of heaven is within you”. See St. John 3, in Part 2 of this study.