"Jesus said to him, `Follow Me. "
John 1:43
ANOTHER FOLLOWER
Read It: John 1:43-44
Philip was right in the middle of this wonderful chain reaction of discipleship cipleship we're studying this week. He played a key role here in the first chapter of John, and then he faded from the scene except for a couple ple of incidents we'll talk about today. But I think Philip deserves some ink of his own. To begin with, he's the only one of this group of disciples who was sought out directly by Jesus. You can miss that important detail if you skim over verse 43 too quickly. All the others were either brought to Jesus by someone else or pointed to Jesus, as in the case of John the Baptist's two disciples. Jesus went looking for Philip, which means Philip came to understand who Jesus was by direct revelation. In other words, Jesus wanted this man on His team. John gives us several clues in his book to the kind of character acter qualities Philip possessed that made him good disciple material. Two of those clues are right here in this chapter. First, like the others, Philip obeyed when Jesus said, "Follow Me." And of course, Philip sought out Nathanael and brought him to Jesus too. If you don't have a brother to bring to Jesus like Andrew did, grab a friend. Philip was a follower and a "bringer." John tells us that Philip was from the same city as Andrew and Peter, so they must have known each other. Maybe that's why we see Philip and Andrew hanging around together later in the book of John. They are linked in the text of John 6 at the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand. sand.
They're together again in chapter 12 when some Greeks want to see Jesus, and Philip and Andrew wind up escorting them to the Lord. And on the night of Jesus' betrayal, it was Philip who said, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us" (John 14:8). Jesus answered him by name, a brief glimpse into what may have been a closer relationship between Master and disciple than we normally think. Maybe it was because Jesus went looking for Philip and called him personally. Whatever the case, here is another classic profile of a good disciple. Think About It We can't all be like Peter, leading the way, but we can all be like Philip. He just kept bringing people to Jesus.
No Comments