Learning to Walk by Faith (Gospel of John Part Six)
Text: John 1:43 – 51
So, last week, we looked at how Andrew and by extension, Peter became disciples of Jesus… Today we’re going to see how Philip and Nathanael become disciples as well… and once again it’s going to be that “come and see” method of evangelism that’s going to be used here.
Ok… so let’s go ahead and look at our text this morning, and then we’ll get into it (READ TEXT).
So we’re told here that Jesus decides to go to Galilee and while He’s there, He finds a guy named Philip. And it’s interesting to me, because Philip is a Greek name… and the name Philip literally means “a lover of horses.” And not only is it an odd thing, for this disciple to have a Greek name… but he had a prominent Greek name. Philip was the name of Alexander the Great’s father… So some scholars think that Philip may have had a Greek father… or that his father was a very practical and pragmatic Jew… adapting to the surrounding Greek and Roman culture, even so far as naming his son a Greek name, so that he and his family could be successful in business.
And Philip is a pretty practical guy himself. I’ll show you that in a little bit.
Now Philip is like Andrew in the sense that he’s not the most well-known disciple. He’s not on the top of any one’s list… but he plays an important role in the Lord’s plans…
So what I want us to do, before we unpack our text is… I want us to get a picture or an idea of just exactly who Philip is, and what he was like. And I think in doing that, it will help us better understand how God works in our own lives.
From what we see in the Scriptures… Philip was… like said a second ago… a practical guy. I kind of think of it like this… Andrew was an arts guy… but Philip was a STEM guy… he’s a number cruncher. Andrew can go up and talk to anyone… and we saw that… he brings people to Jesus… but Philip needs to see the spreadsheet before he makes a move. And he’s from the same town as Andrew and Peter… he probably knew them… but there’s a difference between the way Andrew became a disciple and the way Philip did. Andrew, if you remember; was a disciple of John the Baptist… there’s no mention of Philip being one of John’s disciples. Andrew gets told about Jesus by John, and he started following Him because of that… but in our text today, we see that Jesus found Philip. And probably the reason for this is because again… Philip seems to be a practical kind of guy… he’s not the kind of guy who follows a religious “zealot” who wears animal skins and eat locust and wild honey in the wilderness.
Andrew? Yeah… he’s spiritual… Philip? No… he’s not in to that stuff. And that should tell us that Jesus takes all kinds of folks. Doesn’t matter if you’re more emotionally driven, or logic driven. And so Jesus finds him, searches him out, and calls him… and I’m sure Philip had all sorts of questions… Now we don’t know everything that was said between Jesus and Philip… we don’t even know for sure how long they spoke, or how much time they spent together. But apparently Jesus was able to answer his questions and ease his concerns… because the next thing we’re told here is that Philip goes out and finds Nathanael. What we do know with certainty is that Philip was convinced that Jesus was the Messiah… we know that based on what he says to Nathanael. It’s there in verse 45, “… We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law, and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” So right here, we see that Philip’s not anti-religious… in-fact; he’s obviously read the Scriptures, and knowledgeable of them… he’s just not into all the emotionalism and sensationalism, he’s more evidence, and logic driven.
So he goes and tells Nathanael… but Nathanael gives him some push back… he says, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” And there’s a reason that Nathanael says that… at the time Nazareth was a “Podunk Town”… it was insignificant. And it’s actually commendable that Nathanael says this… because he’s not just dogging on the town of Nazareth, he’s in a round a bout way saying, “Ok… Philip… we’re practical guys. We’re not into all that emotionalism and hype. So just because you’re saying something, I’m not just going to jump on a bandwagon… besides… Nazareth is a nowhere town, and nothing ever comes out of there.”
But Philip’s not going to try to argue with his friend, or even try to convince Nathanael himself.
Instead, he just says to him, “Ok then… You need evidence… you need to see it with your own eyes… Then come and see for yourself.” “COME AND SEE.”
Now before we go on with what happens; I want to show you a few more snap-shots of Philip from John’s Gospel.
The next time we see Philip is in chapter 6, which interestingly, is also the next time we see Andrew. Let’s go ahead and look at it (READ John 6:1 – 14).
So again; we get this contrast between Philip and Andrew. Jesus and the disciples have been preaching all day long, but now it was getting late, and Jesus wanted to show compassion to the people… so out of all the disciples, He calls up Philip and says to him, “Where can we buy some bread to feed these people?” Now verse 6 tells us that this was a test for Philip (Mr. Practical). So what does Philip do? He starts doing some math right? So he’s like, “Let’s see… 5000 men… plus thousands of women… plus thousands of children… uhm… Jesus that’s going to cost us about 8 months of a day laborers wages to feed all these people.”
Now Church, what’s the lesson that Jesus is teaching to Philip here? The passage says that Jesus did this in order to test Philip… what was the test? What’s the lesson? Well… the lesson is that with man, it’s impossible, but with God – all things are possible. In other words, “Philip you believe in God… but you can’t forget that He’s a God of miracles. He’s a God that makes the impossible, possible.” Jesus points out the problem to Philip, but where Philip messed up is that he couldn’t move on to the solution… and the solution was standing right next to him.
The solution was Jesus.
When we look at the things going on in our lives… or in our families… or at our jobs… or in our nation… Do we get stuck on the problem, or do we look forward to the solution? Do we focus on what we don’t have, or do we focus on WHO we do have? This is what Jesus was showing him… With man, it’s impossible, but with God ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE!
Philip had a vision problem… he needed to see it to believe it. He said to Nathanael, “Come and see.” But then when it came down to an actual issue… the feeding of 5000 people, he himself couldn’t see it. And he struggled with this for quite a while.
Turn with me over to John 14:5 – 10, (READ).
Three years of being with Jesus, and he’s still struggling with it. He invited Nathanael to “come and see”; and that’s a good way of doing evangelism… but at some point along the way, it’s going to require a step of faith. In-fact; Jesus even says as much in John 20:29, when He’s speaking to Thomas. He says, “Have you believed because you have seen Me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” You see; eventually we have to learn to walk by faith, not by sight.
So Philip struggled with it… but that’s not the end of his story. I always say, It’s not how you start, but how you end, that matters. You see; after the resurrection of Jesus, when we see Philip again, he’s a changed man. You don’t have to turn there; I’ll just tell you about it… It’s in the Book of Acts… chapter 8. Stephen has just been stoned to death for standing up for the Gospel. And Philip is moved to go to Samaria… of all places… he goes to Samaria, and preaches the Gospel, and a huge revival breaks out. And large numbers of people are coming to Christ. So the Church in Jerusalem hears about what’s going on, and they send Peter and John… the Big Guns! But that’s still not the end of Philip’s story… in the middle of this huge revival, that God has used Philip to start; He all of a sudden tells him to go out into the dessert. And you know what Philip does? He goes. God doesn’t tell him where, or why… all God does is tell him to go down the road to this dessert place. It’s very impractical, and Philip doesn’t see the whole picture… but he’s not the same guy he was before. He obeys God, and heads off. And you know the story… While Philip is obeying God, out on the road, he meets an Ethiopian, shares the Gospel with him, and the guy is converted, then Philip baptizes him. It’s amazing what God will do as we obey Him in faith, and trust Him… And Philip continued to serve the Lord until the day he was martyred in what is now modern day Turkey.
Church… this is what Jesus does. He moves us beyond our line of sight. He calls us to move beyond our limitations and outside of our comfort zones. He calls us to invite people to “come and see”. He calls us to go and share the Gospel. And even that is an act of faith. We have to trust that the simple preaching of the Word will be used by God to bring salvation to others… that sharing the Gospel will be used by God to save the lost, and minister to the hurting, and bring comfort and peace to those who need it. But it takes a step of faith. It takes us doing something a little different than the norm. It takes us changing things up from time to time, as the Lord reveals His will to us, and calls us to obey Him. It takes us believing that Jesus is the One who brings about salvation, through the preaching of His Word. It takes us believing and realizing that it’s not about us – it’s all about Jesus! It’s about His work, His life, death, and resurrection!
Just this last week I was reading a story about an experiment done by a Dr…. Dr. Thomas Watson was his name… and in this experiment Dr. Watson placed several caterpillars on the rim of a large pot. Inside the pot were green leaves, and if you know anything about caterpillars, then you know that they love to eat green leaves. Anyway… the caterpillars began to move along the rim of the pot – each one was following the one in front of it. Around and around the rim of the pot they went until they all died of starvation. If just one of them… JUST ONE would have inched down the side of the pot, it could have saved itself and all its fellow caterpillars.
God’s not calling us to abandon common sense. He’s not calling us to emotion without reason. But He is saying to His Church – “Do what I’ve commanded you, and you’ll see what I can do.” Not what WE can do, but what HE can do!
That’s the life of a disciple, and that’s what He’s calling us to.
CLOSING
