This morning we are looking at the last of the paragraphs in the 1st chapter of the Fourth Gospel, and our subject is, "The Stairway to Heaven."
After the prologue Lazarus gave the testimony of John the Baptizer, and now he is dealing with the gathering of the early disciples of the Lord Yeshua. In our last study we saw John standing with two of his disciples when Yeshua walks by and they begin to follow Yeshua. One of them was Andrew and the other one was most likely Lazarus. The first thing Andrew does is to find his brother Peter and tell him that they have found the Messiah. And he brings him to Yeshua. In the account we are looking at today we see Philip and Nathanael and our Lord's encounter with them. The process of making disciples continues in verses 43-51:
The next day He purposed to go into Galilee, and He found Philip. And Yeshua said to him, "Follow Me." John 1:43 NASB
"The next day"—this is the 3rd repetition of the phrase "the next day." What day is this? It is the 4th day since John the Baptizer's witness of Christ. Let me break this down as I see it: Day One: John 1:19, the day before Yeshua publicly arrives from the wilderness John meets with a delegation from Jerusalem. Day Two: John 1:29, John introduces Yeshua publicly for the first time. Day Three: John 1:35, John introduces Andrew and Lazarus to Yeshua personally. Day Four: John 1:43, Peter finds Philip and brings him to Christ, and Philip finds Nathanael and brings him to Christ. Day Five and Six: they are traveling to Cana. Day Seven: Yeshua arrives in Cana.
The fourth day took place in the vicinity of Bethany beyond the Jordan where John had been baptizing, so Philip must have been somewhere near.
"He purposed to go into Galilee"—who purposed to go? There is no subject expressed in the Greek text of this first sentence. Most versions assume that Yeshua is the subject (The NASB correctly translates, "He," but capitalizes it to show their opinion that it was Yeshua.) The natural grammatical flow would make Peter the subject. If that is the case then Andrew brings Peter to Yeshua; Peter brings Philip; and Philip brings Nathanael.
There are two reasons for thinking that Peter is the subject here and not Yeshua. Everyone else in this chapter who came to Yeshua came on the invitation of someone other than Yeshua. Secondly, Lazarus seems to have been stressing the importance of witnessing for Yeshua.
"He found Philip"—Philip (a Greek name with no Hebrew equivalent) and Nathanael are returning home to Galilee after having come to the area of Bethany beyond the Jordan for John's baptism. Galilee is a good two days journey from Bethany beyond the Jordan.
Although Philip is mentioned in all the Gospels, only Lazarus gives him any role in the narrative:
"Yeshua said to him, "Follow Me"—Yeshua is clearly the subject of the second sentence in verse 43. "Follow Me" is a present active imperative. This was a Rabbinical call to be a permanent disciple. The Jews had set guidelines which defined this relationship. In this Gospel Philip is the only person invited to "follow" Yeshua.
Following Christ is something every believer should be doing. I have heard people say, "I don't follow the doctrines. I just follow Yeshua." Whenever I hear that I like to say to them, "Who is Yeshua?" and immediately we are involved in a doctrinal conversation. You can't define Yeshua with doctrinal proposition. The only way to follow Yeshua is to know His teaching, which is doctrine.
Now Philip was from Bethsaida, of the city of Andrew and Peter. John 1:44 NASB
Andrew, Peter, and Philip were all from the same home-town, Bethsaida. This was a very small town and these men were all undoubtedly acquaintances, if not friends, before they became Yeshua's followers. Later, Peter and Andrew moved their fishing business to Caperanum and Peter married a local girl. The fish-salting factory was located in the town of Magdela, which is next to Caperanum.
Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote—Yeshua of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." John 1:45 NASB
What does a person do when he comes into contact with the Lord Yeshua, when they meet and trust Yeshua? Well one of the first things I did was to tell others about Him. I was so excited I wanted everyone of my friends to trust Him also. I think that would be a normal response to having an encounter with the living God.
"Philip found Nathanael"—Nathanael is a Hebrew name which means: "God has given." He is an interesting character. His name is found only in this Gospel, five times in chapter 1 and once in chapter 21. He is never mentioned in the other Gospels or anywhere else in the New Testament. Some scholars identify him with the Apostle Bartholomew because, just as Nathanael comes after Philip in this Gospel, Bartholomew's name follows Philip's name in all the other lists of the Twelve Apostles except in Acts 1:13, but this remains only a supposition. So all we really know about him is what we learn in this Fourth Gospel.
"We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote"—the phrase, "the Law and the Prophets," was a common expression in New Testament times for the whole Tanakh.
Philip is an unimpressive individual, but there is one thing significant about him. He was a student of the Word of God. When he finds Nathanael, he said unto him, "We have found Him, of whom Moses in the Law, and also the Prophets wrote." So, Philip was a student of the Bible. He had studied Moses. He knew the Law of Moses and what it taught concerning the coming Messiah. He knew what the Prophets said about Messiah. He was actually looking for the Messiah. Daniel had prophesied that Messiah would show up in their day.
Yeshua said to His disciples,
And He said to them, "O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Luke 24:25 NASB
So he considered it a sinful thing not to be responsive to the things that the Scriptures spoke. He later said:
Now He said to them, "These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled." Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, Luke 24:44-45 NASB
There are over 300 prophecies plus many types in the Tanakh that point to Yeshua.
The prophecies to which Philip referred may have included: Deuteronomy 18:15-19, Christ was the Prophet like Moses who was prophesied to come. Yeshua was the great descendant of David who would come to reign on David's throne forever, but whom David himself would address as "my Lord" (Mt 22:43). Yeshua fulfilled Isaiah's prophecy of the child born of a virgin whose name would be "Immanuel" (Isa 4:14). Yeshua was the Lamb foretold by Isaiah, the "righteous Branch" foretold by Jeremiah, the "true Shepherd" foretold by Ezekiel, the Messiah foretold in Daniel 9. Philip looked at the prophecies of Messiah like these, he looked at Yeshua, he made the connection, and then ran to Nathanael to tell him excitedly "We have found Him!"
Philip's statement suggests that the early disciples understood messiahship in the light of the Tanakh background, rather than only in a political sense.
So Nathanael is sitting under a fig tree possibly meditating on the Scriptures, meditating specifically on the life of Jacob, and Philip interrupts him and says, "We've found him."
"Yeshua of Nazareth, the son of Joseph"—"son of Joseph" is the normal way of distinguishing one man from another. Joseph was Yeshua's legal father under the Law. He became his legal father when Joseph named Yeshua at His circumcision. There is no suggestion here that Joseph is Yeshua's birth father. Yeshua was born in Bethlehem but He grew up in Nazareth:
Nathanael said to him, "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see." John 1:46 NASB
"Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?"—why would he say this? It's possible that town rivalry existed between Nazareth and Cana, Nathanael's hometown (21:2). If this is the case, his prejudices against Nazareth were backed up, in his mind, by the lack of mention of Nazareth in the Tanakh, the Talmud, or the Midrash. He knew Scripture and knew that Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem:
"But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Too little to be among the clans of Judah, From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, From the days of eternity." Micah 5:2 NASB
So what Nathanael says could be a dig against the town of Nazareth or could it just be a local proverb, as some scholars suggest. In John 7:52, the Pharisees argued, "Search, and see that no prophet arises out of Galilee [a whole region in northern Israel]." Southern Judeans like them were prejudiced against Galileans in the north.
Since Nathanael is a righteous Israelite who studies the Scriptures, he might just consider it to be a problem that Philip said Messiah was from Nazareth.
"Philip said to him, "Come and see"—Philip didn't argue with Nathanael, he just invited him to "come and see" Yeshua. In verse 39 Yeshua had issued such an invitation, "Come and you will see." Philip echoes the invitation here, "Come and see."
This expression was a conventional form of invitation in Rabbinic literature, drawing attention beforehand to something new, something important or something difficult. Philip is basically saying, "If you just come and meet Him you will see."
Yeshua saw Nathanael coming to Him, and said of him, "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!" John 1:47 NASB
"Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!"—this means a straightforward man with no hidden motives, a true representation of the chosen people, Israel:
How blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no deceit! Psalms 32:2 NASB
I'm sure that Nathanael knew this Psalm, and Yeshua's word must have encouraged him.
Nathanael was an "Israelite indeed," the word "indeed" is from the Greek alethos, which mean: "true." Nathanael was a true Israelite. This reminds me of what Paul said:
For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God. Romans 2:28-29 NASB
Nathanael was a true Israelite inwardly, he had a circumcised heart. This is rare in a nation of apostates, in a nation of hypocrites.
There is a pun involved in the use of the word "Israelite." Yahweh gave Jacob, the son of Isaac, the name Israel after he had wrestled with an the angel of Yahweh (Genesis 32:28-30). One of his great failings was that he was "a man of deception." He even deceived his own father in order to usurp his brother's birthright. The name Jacob meant: "deceitful or conniving." But Nathanael is a true Israelite, not a deceiver, his heart was pure.
Yeshua's words to Nathanael must have stopped him in his tracks. He has never met Yeshua, or even talked with Him, and yet Yeshua describes his heart and his character accurately.
How did Yeshua know Nathanael's character? Did he know about Nathanael because he was omniscient? If this was due to omniscience then why did Yeshua say:
"But of that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone. Mark 13:32 NASB
How could someone who was omniscient not know something? Earlier in our study of this Gospel I said that in the kenosis, Christ laid aside the voluntary use of the divine attributes, He laid aside the prerogatives of His deity. In the incarnation Christ functioned as a real man under the control of the Holy Spirit. He lived by the power of the Holy Spirit.
But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; 1 Corinthians 12:7-8 NASB
I believe that Christ had the spiritual gift of a "word of knowledge." This was a gift by which the Holy Spirit enabled a first-century believer to know and to instruct the assembly in truth now recorded in the New Testament. It was a flash of omniscience from Yahweh Himself, revealing what the person normally would not know. The word of knowledge is not knowledge that is acquired by diligent perseverance and hard work; it is a direct revelation from Yahweh. It was the ability to grasp the truth about a present situation seeing, knowing, and understanding as the Holy Spirit sees, knows, and understands.
But Peter said, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the price of the land? "While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not under your control? Why is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God." Acts 5:3-4 NASB
How did Peter know he was lying? He must have been very sure that he was, because he died as a result of it.
When the jailer awoke and saw the prison doors opened, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Do not harm yourself, for we are all here!" And he called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas, Acts 16:27-29 NASB
How did Paul know the guard was about to kill himself and that the prisoners were all still there? It was a flash of omniscience from God Himself, revealing what the person normally would not know.
Christ functioned with this gift, Christ had all the gifts:
"For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for He gives the Spirit without measure. John 3:34 NASB
Notice how it is that Christ casts out demons:
"But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. Matthew 12:28 NASB
Notice that He did this by the Spirit of God. Yeshua did no miracles before His baptism. His miracles were done in the power of the Holy Spirit and not by His divine nature.
And Yeshua knowing their thoughts said, "Why are you thinking evil in your hearts? Matthew 9:4 NASB
I believe that this is a demonstration of the spiritual gift, the word of knowledge. Christ knew this only because the Holy Spirit revealed it to Him. In His incarnation He wasn't omniscient. He walked to the fig tree only to find out it had no figs on it. He asked the crowd, "Who touched Me?
Christ laid aside the voluntary use of the divine attributes, He laid aside the prerogatives of His deity. From His own will, Yeshua did not use His attributes to benefit Himself. They were not surrendered, but voluntarily restricted in keeping with the Father's plan. Christ gave up any independent exercise of certain divine attributes in living among men with their human limitations, that He might become truly man. Dependance is a necessary characteristic or real humanity. Christ lived in dependance upon the Holy Spirit in all that He did.
So to Christ's comment Nathanael responded:
Nathanael said to Him, "How do You know me?" Yeshua answered and said to him, "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you." John 1:48 NASB
"How do You know me?"—the Greek here literally states, "From where (pothen) do you know me?" To which Yeshua responds: "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you"—It has been suggested by Biblical scholars that Nathanael was sitting under the fig tree studying Scripture when Yeshua saw him. The mention of "the Law" in verse 45 has been used to support this theory. The fig tree was known in Jewish Rabbinic literature as a proper place for meditation.
So here is a true Israelite sitting under a fig tree studying Scripture. Some have gone so far as to suggest that he is studying Genesis 28, he's studying about Jacob and the stairway on which the angels ascended and descended. Now there is no way to know if this is true, but it makes sense in the context. Notice Nathanael's response to Yeshua's words:
Nathanael answered Him, "Rabbi, You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel." John 1:49 NASB
He must have concluded that the only way Yeshua could have known his character and seen him when he was under the fig tree was if Yeshua had supernatural knowledge.
"You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel"—in the Tanakh Messiah was to be the Son of God and King of Israel. In 2 Samuel Yahweh says to David the king of Israel:
"When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom. "He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. "I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me; when he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men and the strokes of the sons of men, 2 Samuel 7:12-14 NASB
Now at one level, this refers to David's son, Solomon. But at another level, it refers to the final "Son of David," the Messiah, because verse 13 says, "I will establish His kingdom forever." There would come a descendant of David whose reign would never end. When Yeshua was born, the angel said to Mary in Luke:
"He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end." Luke 1:32-33 NASB
In other words, 2 Samuel 7:13 was fulfilled in Yeshua. But notice that 2 Samuel 7 not only calls Him a king (He will reign), but also says that He will be the "Son of God."
"I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me; when he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men and the strokes of the sons of men, 2 Samuel 7:14 NASB
So from the time of David on, the Messiah was known as "the Son of God" in a unique way. So the angel goes on to say to Mary in Luke 1:
The angel answered and said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God. Luke 1:35 NASB
So "Son of God' and "King of Israel" were linked in the Tanakh as twin titles for the Messiah. You can also see this in Psalm 2:
The kings of the earth take their stand And the rulers take counsel together Against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying, "Let us tear their fetters apart And cast away their cords from us!" He who sits in the heavens laughs, The Lord scoffs at them. Then He will speak to them in His anger And terrify them in His fury, saying, "But as for Me, I have installed My King Upon Zion, My holy mountain." "I will surely tell of the decree of the LORD: He said to Me, 'You are My Son, Today I have begotten You. Psalms 2:2-7 NASB
So here we have Messiah, King, and Son all referring to the same person. That's the background for Nathanael's outburst in John 1:49 — "Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!" He means, "You are the one expected in 2 Samuel and Psalm 2. "You are the Messiah." The time of fulfillment is here. The Kingdom of God is about to be established on earth and the enemies of God's people will be defeated. The Messiah will take the nations for His inheritance.
At this time, Nathanael and the others who meet Yeshua and proclaim Him to be the Messiah and King most likely have a political understanding of those terms. They think that He will free Israel from Roman rule and usher in a new Davidic age of peace and prosperity. They did not fully understand His person and work as the Suffering Servant (cf. Isa. 53) until after the resurrection.
Nathanael has just been called an "Israelite." So in calling Yeshua "King of Israel" he is acknowledging Yeshua to be his own King: he is submitting to Him.
Another thing about "Son of God," in the Tanakh Israel is God's son (Exod. 4:22-23; Deut. 1:31; 32:6; Jer. 31:9, 20; Hos. 11:1), and in John, Yeshua is presented as the true Israel. Nathanael's declaration of faith and Yeshua's response is echoed in Paul's passage in Romans 9:
But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; Romans 9:6 NASB
The true Israelite believes in Yeshua. So Nathanael is a true Israelite following the true Israel.
Yeshua answered and said to him, "Because I said to you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these." John 1:50 NASB
The "because I said to you" and "You will see greater things" is a direct address to a singular person. It's singular in the Greek text. But in verse 51 he says,"Truly, truly, I say to you" that's plural.
Yeshua was saying to Nathanael, "If you follow Me, you are going to see far greater manifestations of My divine glory than what you just saw." What are the greater things that he will see? This is most likely a reference to the 7 miracles that Christ will perform through this book:
And He said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man." John 1:51 NASB
"Truly, truly, I say to you"—literally this is "Amen! Amen!" Yeshua's doubling of this term is found only in John's Gospel, where it appears twenty-five times. "Amen" is a form of the Hebrew word for faith (emeth), which meant: "to be firm." It was used in the Tanakh as a metaphor for stability and trustworthiness. It came to be translated: "faith" or "faithfulness." However, in time it came to be used of an affirmation. In this initial position in a sentence, it was a unique way of drawing attention to Yeshua's significant, trustworthy statements or revelation from Yahweh.
"You will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man"—there is a change here to the plural (pronoun and verb). This must have been addressed to all those standing there.
"The heavens opened"—this is perfect active participle, which implies they remained opened. The term "heavens" is plural because in Hebrew it is plural. This pictures the insight that people on earth receive into what God is doing in heaven.
"The angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man"—this is a reference to Genesis 28 and Jacob's dream. Once again there is a connection with Israel/Jacob:
He had a dream, and behold, a ladder was set on the earth with its top reaching to heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. Genesis 28:12 NASB
The Hebrew here translated "ladder" is sullan and would better be translated as a staircase. Jacob saw a staircase that started on the earth and the top reached to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.
In Genesis 28 Jacob has been sent out by his mother who is concerned that Esau might do damage to Jacob. And so Jacob is sent off to acquire a wife, but he's also sent off in order to escape Esau. He was afraid of Esau. Esau said if he got hold of him he was going to kill him. And so he fled and went about fifty or sixty or eighty miles away from his home.
Now keep in mind that in those days they had local deities. There were gods over all of these territories. All the Baal's were associated with some particular place. So this idea was no doubt in Jacob's mind. He's thinking here I am now away from home where God, my God, Yahweh, gave the promises to Abraham and to Isaac; does the power of my God prevail when we get this far away from home? Remember, back in Genesis 11 at the Tower of Babel Yahweh divided up the nations and put lesser gods to rule over different territories. We see this in:
When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God. But the LORD's portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage. Deuteronomy 32:8-9 ESV?
Yahweh's portion was Israel, but Jacob felt that he was now out of Yahweh's territory; but then he has a dream. And in this dream he sees a stairway, and this stairway is one set up on the earth. Its top reaches to heaven, and the angels of God are ascending and descending on it. And then the Lord stood by the side of that stairway:
And behold, the LORD stood above it and said, "I am the LORD, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. Genesis 28:13 ESV?
Many of the translations says "above it," but it's likely the Hebrew means: "by the side of it," for later Jacob will say, "Surely the Lord is in this place and I knew it not." Now notice the things that Yahweh tells him:
..."I am the LORD, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Genesis 28:13-14 ESV?
He reiterates the promises made to his grandfather and to his father and then he says:
Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you." Genesis 28:15 ESV?
"Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go"—no matter how far away you get from home, I am no local tribal deity, Jacob. I am Yahweh. "I am the Lord thy God." Yahweh is telling Jacob "I am going to be with until I have done what I have told you about." And Jacob awakened out of his sleep and said:
Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it." And he was afraid and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven." Genesis 28:16-17 ESV?
So the meaning here is essentially that there is communication between heaven and earth, the stairway suggesting that, that there is communication between the Yahweh in heaven and Jacob his servant on the earth, and he may expect that no matter where he goes there is communion between the true God and his great patriarch, Jacob. That was the message to Jacob.
But now when Yeshua refers to this "the angels of God are ascending and descending not upon the stairway, but upon the Son of Man." Yeshua is here substituted for the stairway, which is the place of contact between earth and heaven. He is substituted "the Son of Man," for He is the mediator between earth and heaven.
Now Yeshua is the new Bethel. He is the place where God is present. Heaven has opened, and Yeshua has appeared. And from now on, Yeshua will be the place where God appears most clearly among men, and where men find their way into fellowship with God. There are no holy geographic places any more designated by God as His meeting place with man. Yeshua is that meeting place.
Yeshua was promising Nathanael that He would prove to be the key to access to God and communication with God (cf.14:6; 1 Tim. 2:5). God had revealed Himself to "Israel"—the man and the nation—in a dream at Bethel previously (Gen. 28:10-22). Now God would reveal Himself to a true Israelite, Nathanael, to all Israel, and to the whole world—directly through Yeshua.
"Son of Man"—this is Yeshua's favorite title for Himself that He used over 80 times (Dan. 7:13). In this Gospel the term "Son of Man" is always associated either with Christ's heavenly glory or with the salvation He came to bring.
Nathanael could not have missed the implications of Yeshua's statement. Just as Yahweh stood beside Jacob and made him a promise so too does Yahweh now stand beside Nathanael. The oath Yeshua makes to Nathanael is that the Son of Man is now "the heavenly stairway" of Jacob's vision. He is the center of God's glory and the point of contact between heaven and earth.
So you have John the Baptizer telling his disciples to "Follow Yeshua." Then you have Andrew following Yeshua, and they finding his own brother, Peter, and telling him we found the Messiah. Then you have Peter bringing Philip to Yeshua, and then Philip goes and finds Nathanael and brings him to Christ. This is how it is supposed to work; we are to be bringing others to Yeshua.
Have you ever heard of Edward Kimball? He was a Sunday School teacher who led one of his pupils, D. L. Moody, to Christ. Kimball was a timid, soft-spoken man. He decided to talk with Moody, who was a 19-year-old shoe salesman, about his soul. Moody was untaught and ignorant about the Bible at this point. When Kimball got near the store where Moody worked, he almost chickened out. But he finally went for it, stumbled over his words, and said later that he never could remember exactly what he said—just something about Christ and His love. He admitted that it was a weak appeal. But Moody trusted Christ then and there. Later God used Moody mightily to lead thousands to Christ in America and England. His impact continues today through Moody Bible Institute, where thousands of Christian workers have been trained and sent out all over the world. All because Edward Kimball shared the Gospel with one man.