LEARNING DAILY

John 1:43, The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, "Follow me."

Philip was probably another fisherman. It is interesting to me how many fishermen Jesus called to “Follow Him”; He did not look for the most qualified – those with the degrees and the experience. Jesus found those who He could teach, who would faithfully continue to tell the world about Him and do miracles by His power. Fisherman were hardworking, real-world individuals; they were not well-educated, but not ignorant. If you want to know a modern-day term for them, it would possibly be “blue-collar workers”. That still holds true today as Jesus still calls those who are willing to be used by Him in the way(s) He chooses. A submissive heart and a willingness to serve Him is far more important than wealth, position, and even talent.

John MacArthur wrote, “All we know about Philip is found in the book of John…and he is often paired with Nathaniel. Piercing together all that the apostle John records about him, it seems Philip is a classic ‘process’ person… a facts-and-figures, by-the-book person…predisposed to be pragmatic, cynical, and sometimes defeatist – rather than visionary.”

Philip is a Greek name which shows the extent of the influence the Greek culture had on Israel at the time Jesus walked on the earth. I imagine that there was a greater conversation between Jesus and Philip rather than Jesus going up to Philip and saying, “Follow Me”. Philip had been a follower of John the Baptist, returned to Galilee where Jesus found him. Philip’s reaction was like that of Andrew who told Peter about Jesus. Philip went to Nathaniel and told him about Jesus, about “The One” written about in the Hebrew Scripture.

There is an interesting discussion between Jesus and Philip found in John 6 where the feeding of the five thousand is recorded. Remember to say the crowd numbered this many is not the true number as it did not include the number of women and children. In verse 5 Jesus singled out Philip, asking him where they could but bread for such a number of people. The next verse states that Jesus asked him this question to “test him”. Philip “may have been in charge of arranging for meals and logistics” (MacArthur). Philip’s answer was materialistic, replying, "Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little." How would you have replied? Jesus was confronting Philip, the other disciples, and even you and me for looking at a situation from the human effort first instead of appealing to God to handle the results. (A lesson I was taught yesterday, by the way!). Philip was concentrating on the financial solution to the problem – they simply did not have enough money to feed all these people.  The proper approach to solving our problems is to trust God completely and submit to His will (verses 10-11).

One other place to look at Philip and his response to Jesus is in the Upper Room at the Last Supper. Jesus was telling the disciples that He was about to leave them; seeing they were having trouble with what they were being told, He promised He would prepare a place for them. Jesus told them He was God’s Son, “If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him." Philip’s replied for Him to show them the Father. He is keying in on “seeing the Father. This is not a statement of ignorance. He may have been focusing on the experience of Moses or Isaiah, or even the Transfiguration experience of several of the other disciples. Jesus replied to him that he had seen Him, the Christ, so He had seen the Father.

Philip was one of the first disciples to be martyred for his faith. Obviously, he had overcome those human reasons that often hinder Believers from being the salt and light in a dark world.