John tells us exactly why he wrote his Gospel:
“…that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” (John 20:31)
John is not simply telling stories about Jesus—he is presenting a case. His Gospel reads like a courtroom, filled with witnesses, signs, and testimony, all pressing toward a single question: Will you believe?
It’s no accident that John uses the word believe more than any other Gospel. While it appears 34 times across Matthew, Mark, and Luke combined, John uses it 84 times. Belief, for John, is not abstract, it is definitive and therefore a rule of life.
That’s why, on 25 occasions, John records Jesus beginning with the words “Very truly I tell you” (or “Most assuredly”). These are statements of certainty—foundational truths that anchor Christian faith. Our series, Certain Things, explores these statement of certainty.
The first of these is breathtaking in scope:
“Very truly I tell you, you will see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” (John 1:51)
An Open Invitation
This moment comes as Jesus gathers his first disciples around Bethsaida. Andrew follows Jesus after hearing John the Baptist. Peter comes through his brother’s witness. Philip responds to Jesus’ direct call. Nathanael comes reluctantly, carrying prejudice—“Can anything good come from Nazareth?”—but is drawn in by a personal encounter with Jesus.
John shows us that there is no single pathway to faith, but there is always an invitation: “Come and see.”
When Philip finds Nathanael, he is sitting under a fig tree—a common posture for meditation on the Scriptures. We’re not told exactly what Nathanael was reading, but Jesus meets him in that moment with a promise rooted deep in Israel’s story.
Jesus reaches back to Genesis 28, where Jacob dreams of a stairway connecting heaven and earth, with angels ascending and descending. When Jacob wakes, he says:
“Surely the Lord is in this place… This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”
That vision carried a promise: God himself would provide a way between heaven and earth. Not through human ambition like Babel’s tower, but through divine initiative.
Now Jesus stands before Nathanael and declares that this promise is no longer a dream. The gate of heaven is opening—not at a place, but in a Person.
The Gate Made Flesh
Jacob was a man marked by deceit. Nathanael is described as one “in whom there is no deceit.” Yet Jesus makes it clear that moral proximity is not the issue. Nathanael isn’t praised for climbing higher or getting closer. Because even if he had reached the top rung by his own effort, he would still fall infinitely short.
The certainty of John’s Gospel is this: the ladder is not something we climb—He is someone we trust.
Jesus, the Son of Man spoken of in Daniel’s vision, is the meeting point of heaven and earth. As Bruce Milne puts it, “Jesus… is the new and supreme point at which God and humanity intersect.”
The gate of heaven is open because Jesus is the way.
“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)
Righteousness is not achieved; it is received.
“All are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” (Romans 3:24)
A Living Question
So John’s first claim of certainty invites us into an open heaven:
Have you entered the gate? By this we mean have you put your faith not in your own moral goodness but Jesus and his love demonstrated in His death and resurrection.
And for those who have put their faith in Jesus, as Lord and Saviour—does the open heaven still stir praise in us?
The psalmist declares:
“Open for me the gates of the righteous… I will enter and give you thanks, for you answered me; you have become my salvation.” (Psalm 118)
Jesus is the open gate.He is the full revelation of God’s glory.
And this is not merely a past event—it is a present reality.
“The Lord has done it this very day; let us rejoice today and be glad.”
Heaven is open. Come and see.